Garden - A Final Fantasy Series
by Fensta
Summary: Written in a 'Series' format (Each chapter a self-contained story). Three years have past since Ultimecia was defeated, and life goes on. Squall, as Commander of SeeD, receives an unexpected contract, from his old lover - Rinoa. Why does she need help, and why now, after two years? The answers to those questions will only lead him and the others into a new series of adventures...


Final Fantasy VIII – The Series

Brief:

This project is an experiment to see if the 'series' format, commonly found on TV, can be applied to Fan Fiction. Chapters are by nature episodic, but often chapters in Fan Fiction have only minor plots that sacrifice to progress the greater storyline. The aim of this project is to try and turn this trend on its head. In 'Garden', each chapter will aim to be a complete mini-story within overall arcs of storyline that thread their way throughout the series, much like any typical TV series that you might care to mention. This means that the chapters are likely going to be longer than usual, and take longer to write as a result, but instead of the story jumping ahead slowly in small instalments, the overall story should progress steadily, helped along by individually finished short stories for each chapter (or 'episode') that should themselves be entertaining and rewarding (complete) stories in their own right.

And so, welcome to the Pilot Episode of the new Fan Fiction Series:

* * *

**Garden**

The sound of metal on metal was loud, too loud, but it was done and the team was already through the wire-fence gate by the time that the disabled padlock hit the grass at their feet with a dull thud. Dressed head to foot in black, the three moved invisibly through the shadows of the small ring of green that surrounded the complex that was their target. An owl hooted in a tree nearby, but the team ignored it, more concerned with the single guard that had suddenly appeared at the corner of the building, whistling and swinging a night stick around in a bored way.

The team froze and silent hand signals were given. Two huddled down, happy that the moonless night wouldn't give them away, whilst the third peeled off and sprinted towards the nearest part of the building before them. He moved faster than should have been possible, and as silently as a shadow, reaching the bare breeze-block wall within seconds despite the distance. The guard hadn't spotted him, and really hadn't stood a chance. A couple of moments later he was unconscious on the floor, blood slowly pooling from a cut on the back of the head – an injury sustained from being hit by his own night stick.

'You were told, no deaths!' one of the black-clad figures growled out at the other when they caught up with him. The speaker was a large man, his voice deep, and there was a dangerous look in the two eyes that peered out from beneath the black woollen balaclava.

The first man shrugged. 'It's just a scratch. He'll be fine.' he said softly. Smaller, lighter and much younger than the large man before him, he refused to be intimidated by him. 'And anyway, what does one more death matter. The number that we plan to...'

'Shut your mouth!' The first man ground out between yellowed teeth. 'This ain't the time or place. Let's just get the damn thing and get outta here! You can debate me philosophy back at base.'

The small man rolled his eyes, but stayed quiet and waved the team on around the corner towards a security door, the guard's key-card in hand. They were in the building within minutes. The security door had buzzed alarmingly loudly before admitting them entry, but as with the padlock, they were soon beyond and already forgetting.

Inside was bright, sterile and above anything else, white. The team collectively winced as the bar-lights blinked into life above them as their bodies triggered the movement sensors. They recovered quickly and where before a group of three darkly dressed figures crouched suspiciously in a white corridor, suddenly it was occupied by two smartly attired men and a woman in a pencil skirt and white blouse. Each had a fake identity tag hanging from their belt, and looked all the part of three anonymous suits in a government facility.

But this was no government facility.

'You know your jobs.' the woman said, looking at her watch nervously, 'Ten minutes max. Get going.'

Twenty metes away, Miels Keller had his feet up at the security desk. Slightly overweight, he was picking at a bowl of salad his wife had forced him to pack, whilst watching the highlights from the Winhill Open Golfing Tournament. Now there was a game he could appreciate. His son had lately gotten into ice hockey, a game which Miels couldn't see the appeal of, but was supportive of his son nonetheless. To his right, four monitors fixed to the wall flicked automatically between twelve security cameras. When he had first started the job, three year ago, he would have spent his entire shift watching the screens attentively, looking for that suspicious person, that one rouge shadow that indicated foul play, but three years at the same desk had taught him one thing: No one was coming. There were things in the building that were probably worth stealing, but nobody ever would. The security was too tight. Key cards were needed to get through any of the doors to the rear, and anyone using the main entrance had to walk straight past him. In addition to that, biometric scans were used in the more restricted areas of the facility, places even he wasn't allowed to go, and if anyone did manage to steal anything, not that they could, the company would hunt them down. Even if Miels missed a face on his shift, the computer would play back the tape and by the next day three different mercenary teams would be tracking the sons-of-bitches. This company was not one people stole from.

The golf coverage paused and an advert from the sponsors rolled across the screen for whiter teeth. Miels switched off mentally within seconds. He glanced casually at the security monitors, but apart from one late-night worker in a suit strolling down one of the corridors Miels wasn't allowed in, there was no movement. It struck Miels as strange that the man was perfectly dressed, suit jacket and tie, whilst the average worker around here was down to a tie-less, short-sleeved arrangement and definitely without jacket by this time of the night, but the golf coverage started again and he quickly distracted himself in the image.

McShae was doing badly, four over par on the 14th, but Miels had always disliked McShae for beating Westerson by one stroke on the old man's last Open Tournament before retiring. Plus, McShae might pretend that he was from Deiling, but everyone knew he was really born in Timber.

Meils pondered over the sporting injustice of that win as he watched McShae try to dig himself out of a bunker. _Serves him right_, he thought,_ the Timber-loving bastard._

The alarm was completely unexpected. At first, Meils didn't comprehend quite what was happening, thinking that it was just another biohazard klaxon indicating that somewhere upstairs a tired and overly-stressed technician had dropped another petri dish of highly infectious something. Three times in a month was the record, but it had been two months since the last incident, so Meils decided that they were probably due for one.

Then things started falling into place. Two men came running down the corridor, their suit jackets flapping in their wake.

'Get out of here!' one of them shouted, a large man with a deep voice that commanded respect. Beside him a much smaller man was also hurrying. He had a cut above one of his eyes, and Meils could see that he was limping, favouring his left leg. 'Get out! It's going to blow!' shouted the large man again. 'It's unstable! For god's sake! Get out of here before it explodes!'

Meils was suspicious. Why hadn't he seen these men enter the building, and why was the smaller man bleeding? But he was also aware of his own mortality, and when a small explosion rocked the building he completely forgot his concerns and took their advice. Leaving the half-eaten salad on the desk, he grabbed his jacket and jumped over the desk, keen to get as far away from the building as possible.

He was in such a hurry to get away that he didn't notice that neither of the two men followed him out.

* * *

It was calm over the Serengetti Sea. The sky was partly cloudy, but the clouds were white and non-threatening, and every few minutes the sun would peak through and send dazzling light cascading through the glass on Balamb Garden's navigation bridge. To be honest, SeeD Tessa Spence liked it better when it was cloudy.

'Winhill Traffic, Winhill Traffic,' Tessa said confidently into the marine radio handset, 'this is Balamb Garden, calling on channel 11, over.'

A crackle of static spat through the speakers at her, the background radiation was always worse in the southern hemisphere, especially near Centra, but the technicians had done well to modify the radios to cut through most of it. 'Winhill Traffic, this is Balamb Garden on channel 11. Do you read? Over.'

Another hiss of static, but then the speakers came to life with a familiar smooth male voice. '_Balamb Garden, this is Winhill Traffic. Good morning._'

Tessa smiled. She knew the voice well, although they had never met in person, they worked the same watch and she had spoken to this man every time the Garden passed Winhill for the past two years. She would be lying if she tried to deny that her visual image of the man involved long golden hair and piercing brown eyes, and a body tanned to the colour of drinking chocolate.

'Good morning, Winhill.' she said, trying to get that particular image out of her head. 'Just a routine call informing you that we'll be transiting your area over the next couple of days in a North Easterly direction. Final destination will be Fisherman's Horizon. Over.'

Tessa allowed herself to imagine what his reaction to her voice might be. Immediately she saw him smiling, the unbelievably hansom face filling with perfect teeth. Maybe a little swoon. Oh, who was she kidding? The guy was probably a pasty white guy in sweatpants, with a BMI of 40 and an age somewhere similar. Still, his voice was lovely.

'_Understood, Balamb._' he said in his velvety-smooth voice, and suddenly Tessa didn't care that the man was probably similar to a baby whale to look at. '_How many crew members do you have on board? Over._'

'Three hundred and forty seven crew, thirty six passengers.' There were a few non-SeeD spouses on board, a concession that the Commander had allowed, even if having his on board hadn't quite worked out for him too well.

'_ETA at Fisherman's Horizon?_'

'O' three hundred, seven days from now.'

'_And are you carrying any dangerous goods?_'

Tessa grinned. He always asked this, despite the answer that he knew he would get. 'Of course, but as usual, I'm not authorised to give you any further details in that regard.'

The man, who Tessa didn't even know the name of, was heard to laugh down the radio. '_Of course._' he repeated. '_Thank you for the call. We'll be monitoring your progress. Please inform us if you change your destination or ETA. Safe watch and smooth sailing. This is Winhill Traffic, standing by on channels 11 and 16._'

'Understood, Winhill. Have a good watch. Balamb Garden, listening channel 16.'

With the twist of a dial the radio was set back on it's usual listening channel and Tessa went back to monitoring the sensor equipment that dotted the navigation bridge. A merchant vessel was approaching from the north and Tessa adjusted Garden's course to take them well out of their way. As the Garden could travel almost double the speed of most conventional ships, they mostly kept out of everyone's way if they could.

Tessa heard the hydraulics of the lift hiss behind her and turned to see her relief, a civilian-contracted pilot by the name of Paoli, step off the grate. She smiled at him, happy that her watch was finally finished, and that Paoli hadn't come up five minuted earlier.

'Hiya, Paoli. Had a nice sleep?'

Paoli shrugged. He was tall and stick thin, but had a kind face hidden beneath a thick layer of black fuzz he called a beard. At one time he had been a cadet, but when he'd graduated from Garden at 18 without becoming a SeeD, he had inquired if he could work full-time as a Garden pilot – an optional module he had passed with flying colours. The administration didn't need to think too long on it and ever since the young man had been flying the Garden as one of five civilian pilots on Garden's payroll.

'As good as can be expected.' he replied, stretching as he moved over to the long range scan display. He tapped a couple of keys, bringing up an overlaying chart. 'The cadets in the next cabin are driving me crazy, as usual, but exam season is coming up, so they'll quieten down soon enough.'

Tessa grinned. 'If memory serves, that's not what you did during exam season.'

'Yes, but I didn't pass my exam, now did I?' He grinned back at her to ensure she knew there were no hard feelings – some ex-cadets could be a little sensitive around friends that passed where they didn't. 'So, what have you got for me?'

The watch handover was completed quickly but thoroughly, and within five minutes Paoli was shooing the female SeeD off the bridge.

'Get gone, or you'll miss supper. It's Friday, you know; hot dog night!' He knew she loved them.

'Okay, okay! I'm going. Oh, just one thing though, remember that you have an incoming chopper from Galbadia. ETA 1900. Think it's carrying some important clients, so try not to dump them in the water.'

'Very funny,' Paoli said, 'Now piss off before I dump _you _in the water.'

The lift hissed angrily for a second before dropping away, taking Tessa with it. In the old Garden, she would have ended up in Headmaster Krammer's old office, but times had changed and she now stepped out into a bustling room of paper-pushing SeeD and civilian office staff. The entire level had been given over to the administration of Garden. The Commander's office was off to one side, the blinds behind the newly installed glass wall were open, so Tessa could see that Squall wasn't around, which was a rarity. She hoped he was getting some rest. It was well known that the man worked too hard.

'Tessa!' A waving arm got her attention and she followed it to the owner, another female SeeD by the name of Sarya. A member of Garden's security team, she was one of Tessa's closest friends on board, and a constant source of gossip. It was the girl's job to know the business of Garden's residents, after all. 'You'll never guess what!'

Tessa doubted that she could, and didn't try. 'What's got you so excited?' she said, noting the gleam in Sarya's eyes that went hand in hand with juicy morsels of gossip.

'You know we've got a chopper coming in this evening, from Galbadia?' the girl asked, knowing full well that Tessa was aware of the fact. 'I've just been sent the passenger list! I'm meant to be checking backgrounds; criminal records, agency databases, that sort of thing; but you'll never guess who's on it!'

Tessa rolled her eyes. 'Yes, I think we've gathered that my guessing skills are somewhat lacking. Why don't you just tell me?'

Sarya didn't need much more encouragement. 'The chopper is owned by Galbatech Industries, so I figured that it would just be some suits and maybe a bodyguard or two, you know how jumpy weapons manufacturers can be, but there's only one passenger, and it's... well, look for yourself!'

A printed copy of the passenger list was handed to her and Tessa scanned the page. She saw the name, blinked, and then read it again, just to be sure.

'You're joking.' she said, looking down at her friend who looked, quite frankly, like the cat that had got the cream. 'This is a joke, right? You're kidding me.'

Sarya's grin couldn't be much wider and she shook her head. 'I called up Galbatech head office to confirm it ten minutes ago. It's her.'

Tessa looked over her shoulder at the empty Commander's office. 'Does Squall know?'

'Haven't seem him since he left for lunch, and the passenger list only came through in the past hour. Can't see how he would know, unless she called him herself...'

'Not going to happen.' Tessa was sure of it. He needed to know though. 'Can I borrow this?' she said, waving the passenger list. Sarya shrugged.

'Don't go posting it on any noticeboards, but people are going to know soon enough. You going to try and find the Commander?'

Tessa nodded. 'Best he find out before she gets on board. Thanks, Sarya.'

'Any time, Tessa.' the girl called back as Tessa wove her way through the sea of desks and people, her mind already working out just how blunt she should be with the Commander. The passenger was his ex after all.

And Rinoa Heartily was coming back to Garden.

* * *

Garden looked just like she remembered it. Through the helicopter window she could make out the graceful sweeps of blue and white that made up the main superstructure. Below the surface of the water, faint glows of electric blue and gold could just be made out as the golden disks revolved to keep the Garden afloat, process unknown. It should have been a wonderfully happy moment for Rinoa, a return to a place that held so many happy memories, but it wasn't.

In an attempt to distract herself, Rinoa fiddled with her handgun, running through the motions of checking the breech and slider in a way that, were there anyone watching, they would know she was well practised at. In truth, her mind was far away, her movements nothing more than muscle memory. Her attempt to distract herself had backfired, and now she was remembering a past time, a better time, but a sad time too.

Ultimecia was defeated, and Garden rejoiced. She had been happy, she remembered, happier than she had ever been in her life before. She had good friends who appreciated her, who accepted her even though they knew what she was, and she had something special with someone special. He had been kind, sweet, strong... He had been just what she needed. Her knight.

But things didn't last. Without the impending sense of doom, Squall's role in Garden was slowly but surely relegated behind a desk, whist the rest of her friends drifted apart to play their own part in the great Garden machine. As a civilian member of Garden, albeit a high-ranking one, she had been given the run of the place, but missions were off limits to her. A sorceress she might be, but she was no SeeD. They consulted her on a number of occasions, used her as a liaison between the G-Army and Garden a couple of times, and again for Timber rebel groups, but whenever she found herself caught up in any fighting, she still felt like she had back in Trabia all those years ago – The SeeD switched up a gear and left her behind.

In the end, living on board Garden without a clearly defined job, with only fleeting meetings with her friends who couldn't tell her about their missions or plans without clearing it with Squall first, and a boyfriend who saw more of his office than their cabin, took its toll. One day, when the Garden was in position near Deling City, she simply left and didn't look back. No note, no video message, no goodbyes. It had been easier that way.

And now she had to go back.

Replacing the magazine, she holstered the weapon inside her jacket and secured it. The meeting was likely going to be tense enough without a handgun falling out of her jacket accidentally. She didn't think they would distrust her – she knew enough of Garden's secrets that she could have blown them out of the water if she had wanted to – but tensions were likely to be high. She had told her employer this when he had given her the assignment, but he had insisted. She knew SeeD, he had explained, and they needed someone to keep an eye on them. She was the perfect candidate.

Rinoa braced a hand against the bulkhead as the helicopter turned in for its final approach. Through the window the long fin at the rear of Garden swept under them as they closed on the large clear area used for the Garden Festival on the port side of the structure. The helicopter shook a little as it was buffeted by turbulence created by Garden, but soon passed through it, and suddenly the pilot was turning around to tell her that she could unstrap and get out when she was ready.

Taking a deep breath, Rinoa unclipped the belt and opened the door. A blast of warm air hit her, and for a second she found it hard to breathe, but then her lungs recovered and she was able to step down onto the beautifully polished white marble floor of the Garden Square. A SeeD she didn't recognise ran up to her with a radio headset on, and beckoned her away from the helicopter. She motioned for him to wait one second and leant back through the door to grab a simple brown leather bag, then she allowed herself to be steered away from the swirling mass of air beneath the helicopter.

As they reached a safe distance, the SeeD spoke into his headset and sent the pilot a series of hand signals. Rinoa saw the door she had exited from close automatically, and then the artificial wind intensified as the engines powered for take-off. The helicopter rose a couple of meters, hovered for a second, and then banked away, gaining height all the time. Within two minutes the wind had returned to normal levels and the scream of the turbines had subsided to a faint 'thud thud thud' of rotor blades at a distance.

The SeeD turned to her, sliding off his headset. 'Miss Heartily?' he said. Rinoa detected a hint of a Trabian accent. 'My name is Royce. Welcome back to Garden. Please follow me to the conference room.'

Rinoa nodded, glad that the SeeD was someone she didn't know, judging from his age, he was probably someone who had qualified in her absence. He would have been a cadet when she'd left. She wondered if he remembered her. She wondered what he had heard about her.

She decided that she probably didn't want to know.

As they stepped into the cavernous space of the central hallway a wall of air conditioned air hit them, dry and crisp. Rinoa allowed herself a small sigh at the refreshing wave of cool. Royce seemed to take it as a sigh of nostalgia.

'How long has it been?' he asked as they paused to let a large jabbering group of cadets pass. She gathered from the tone of his voice that he was attempting small talk, but it was a topic that was anything but small to Rinoa.

'Two years.' she said, deciding to steer the conversation away from any dangerous topics. 'Much changed in that time?'

Royce shrugged. 'We've got some new accommodation in the basement levels, and a cinema, but Garden is much as you left her. We had a complete overhaul of some of the major systems last summer in FH; propulsion, environmental, navigation, that sort of thing; but I can't say I've noticed much change in terms of operation. I suppose the largest change is outside the windows. Theses days it feels like you could go to sleep in Trabia and wake up in the middle of the Centra crater and consider it normal. I don't know who chooses where we go, but they must have itchy fingers.

'Yeah, I hear you change locations every month.' Rinoa replied, deciding not to mention that she had put up with a year of just that before deciding to leave. That was a conversation she didn't want to have, especially with a stranger, and so played dumb. 'Must be hard.'

Royce laughed. 'As a cadet, I loved it. A new adventure every month, new monsters to battle, new GFs to find. As a SeeD... well, where the base is doesn't really matter when you can be sent off to any corner of the globe on a mission at a moment's notice.' he shrugged again. 'I suppose the change of scenery is nice, but stay on a moving platform long enough and you find yourself longing for a night in the Golden Lion.' The Golden Lion was a bar in Balamb that the residents of Garden had often stopped in at back during the days when Garden was stationary. It had a reputation for being a little rough, and the patron tended to turn a blind eye to small duels and the odd bar stool catching fire. As far as Rinoa was concerned, longing to have a quiet drink in there was a bad sign. 'Thank god they put in a bar in the last overhaul. People were going crazy without one.'

They reached the lift easily enough and Royce used a key to call it – a priority key, Rinoa remembered, to be used for clients only. At least that was one perk.

'You'll be using Conference Room Three,' he said as the doors hissed shut, his tone of voice switching abruptly to all business. 'You can expect a small wait whilst we inform the Commander of your arrival and we gather the necessary paperwork. Feel free to help yourself to refreshments, and if you like I can get some dinner sent up – it's Friday, so it's hot dogs tonight.'

Rinoa was tempted, but the fluttering in her stomach was making the prospect of eating anything quite unappealing. She might be able to tell herself that she was fine, that being in this place that was her home for over a year, that she was about to put herself in a room full of old friends, that she was about to face the man she walked out on, was all fine. That she was okay with it. But her body wasn't listening.

'I'll be fine, thank you.' she replied, 'Take your time, I'll be here as long as it takes, and I get paid by the hour.'

_And that's the only reason I'm here._ She told herself.

* * *

Squall's pager squawked loudly as it vibrated across the desk. A moment later, the Commander blinked himself awake. Three nights of teleconferences with a client in Esthar, who's time zone was so different to Squall's that he had become nocturnal by necessity, was having a detrimental effect. Checking his watch, he realised that it was early evening. Supper was still going on, and although a good hot dog tempted him, Zell was recently back from a mission and Squall knew his chances of getting one was slight at best. With a grunt of effort he swung his legs out of bed and planted his feet on the carpeted floor. The carpet was rough and slightly threadbare, but it was luxury compared to most the cabins on Garden where linoleum covered bare steel.

The pager vibrated again and danced across the table. With a lurch, Squall stood and snatched it up before it could shuffle itself to the floor. He silenced the alarm and peered sleepily at the small backlit display.

'_XU – EXT. 304_' it said simply. Wondering what could possibly be important enough to wake him in the middle of the Serengetti Sea, miles from the nearest land and even further from the nearest person, Squall shuffled over to the phone and rang Xu's extension.

'This better be good, Xu.' he mumbled down the line. 'You know I went to sleep three hours ago.'

'_It's good._' she assured him. There was a cacophony of noise in the background, but that was always the case when he rang Xu at her desk in the admin department. The place was organised chaos, and for that reason Squall tried to shut himself in his office as often as possible, glad for the peace and quiet it offered. 'The representative from Galbatech arrived by helo about ten minutes ago. Tessa has been running around Garden like a headless chicken trying to find you for over an hour.'

'Well, she obviously didn't look very hard. I'm right here.' Squall regretted saying it as soon as it came out his mouth, but his sleep-deprived mind hadn't managed to stop it. He heard Xu cluck in disapproval on the other end.

'_If you'd try sleeping in your own cabin once in a while, she might have stood a chance._' she quipped. '_I swear, giving you that list of unoccupied cabins is the worse mistake I've made this year._'

'I like to sleep, so sue me.' Squall quipped back, not in the mood to defend his decision to sleep in places where people didn't know the phone number to contact him. In the past two years he had calculated that he averaged five hours of sleep a night, and that was even with unplugging the phone. The problem with having your own cabin was that it had a door that people could find just as easily as an extension number. 'So what's so important about the Galbatech rep? Couldn't you handle it?'

'_Normally, you know I would._' she said. Squall could hear the 'but' in the next sentence a full three seconds before it came. '_But I think it's best that you deal with this one yourself._'

Squall growled. 'Spit it out, Xu. I've had three hours sleep, and I'm not in the mood to play word games. What's so special about this guy that I have to see him myself. Unless it's Adel, back from the dead, and wanting to hire us to take back Esthar from President Loire, I really can't see the problem.'

Xu was blunt. '_It's Rinoa._' she said simply, and Squall felt himself waking up in an instant. 'She's Galbatech's representative.'

There was a pause whilst Squall's brain engaged a gear and processed the information. 'Has she asked for me specifically?' he felt a little queasy about facing the girl, but at the same time was genuinely concerned that she might come all the way out to Garden and 'not' ask for him. It was a complicated feeling that he didn't quite understand, and so he tried to ignore it as best as possible.

'_No, she hasn't._' Xu's tone of voice was business-like, but Squall could tell that she had thought along the same lines as he had. '_I sent Royce to collect her from the pad; a face she wouldn't have remembered, so I doubt she would have felt comfortable making a request like that. I didn't think sending Zell would have ended well._' Squall agreed, but wouldn't ever tell Zell that. '_I have skimmed the job proposal though, and you're named specifically in it. Seems logical that you be there at the negotiation._'

Squall nodded, forgetting for a second that Xu couldn't see him down the telephone line. 'Give me a brief overview of the contract.'

'_Some dangerous material was stolen from a secure Galbatech facility sometime in the past 48 hours, and the contract is to retrieve the stolen package. The thieves didn't do very well at disguising themselves and we've already confirmed their identity as an extremist Timber resistance group named the Timber Bears. We don't have details of the stolen device, but if Galbatech are willing to hire us to retrieve it, it's probably either extremely powerful, extremely unstable, or __extremely illegal. Getting more details on the device was subject to accepting the job, although I'm sure Rinoa will be forthcoming. She was never one to keep secrets._'

There were a lot of things that Rinoa was never one to do, but Squall had misjudged her in the past. Xu seemed to sense his line of thought.

'_Sorry, Squall._'

He ignored her. 'How does it name me, exactly? In what capacity?'

The sound of paper being shuffled around came down the phone before Xu answered. '_You are named as the preferred team leader. In fact..._' she paused to read something more carefully, '_...the contract is only on the table as long as you lead the team. They must be really worried. I'm sure we can negotiate around that though, if you'd prefer._'

She and Squall knew full-well what he'd prefer, but they both knew what he was going to say regardless. The job came first, as it always had done with Squall.

'Give her a call and tell her that you and I will be there in thirty minutes.' he said eventually, and then, just because he could, 'and see if you can get a plate of hot dogs sent up to the room for me. I'm starving.'

'_Yessir._'

Squall put the phone down and closed his eyes, wondering what he had ever done to deserve his life. With that buoying thought in mind, he grabbed a towel and headed for the shower. If he was going to meet Rinoa again, he was going to do it refreshed.

* * *

Twenty five minutes later and Squall found himself staring at the polished bronze nameplate for Conference Room Three. Screwed into the wall next to a frosted glass sliding door, he could see colour moving about within, although none of the blue that he used to associate with the girl he had once loved.

He looked down at himself, his SeeD uniform gleaming brightly, mainly from non-use. He brushed off a couple strands of lint that clung to his sleeve. The heavy chain around his neck clinked softly. _As good as it was going to get_, he decided. Pressing the button on the door control, he tried to appear calm as the glass panel slid aside to reveal the room beyond. He stepped through.

The room was reasonably large; a converted lecture theatre. A large wooden table ran the length of the room, surrounded on two sides by comfortable looking leather office chairs. They had kept the lecture screen for any presentations, but apart from that and a few tall potted plants, the the room was practically bare.

Except, of course, for the one chair that was occupied, papers and a worn leather bag spread out on the table before her.

'Squall.' The girl stood and offered him her hand to shake. He didn't take it, but looked her in the eye, trying to gauge her reaction to seeing him again. She didn't seem surprised, or relieved for that matter. In fact, she was remarkably calm and collected. Professional. Squall was almost disappointed, but he supposed it made it easier. If she could feign being unaffected, then there was no reason that he shouldn't be able to. At least it let him know how she wanted to play it.

'Miss Heartily.' he said, shaking her hand firmly, mildly surprised with the strength she returned it with. 'I hear you have a job proposal for us?'

Rinoa looked towards the door, and for a second her mask dropped as she evidently thought that she would have to speak exclusively to Squall, alone, in the home they used to share. Panic and vulnerability flashed behind her eyes, and Squall almost felt sorry for her. Almost.

'Xu will be joining us shortly.' he said, letting her know that he had seen her glance at the door. Questions bubbled up inside him, and he longed to ask them, but he controlled his emotions and pulled out a chair to sit in, directly across from Rinoa.

They sat in silence, and suddenly Squall wished he had thought to bring some reading material. He wouldn't have been able to concentrate on it properly, but scanning it needlessly would have been ten times less awkward than sitting in a room with nothing interesting to look at other than the one thing he couldn't. He did look though, of course, and although she was looking through her notes, Squall was sure that she was taking long glances in his direction when he wasn't studying her.

She was wearing a dark brown leather jacket that bordered on black, a white t-shirt beneath, and from the way she was holding herself, he suspected that she was wearing an under-arm pistol holster. Her hair was shorter, her highlights more prominent, and she wore a little too much eye-liner. The only remnants of the blue colour scheme that she had used to love were the pair of expensive-looking earrings that Squall caught a brief glimpse of when she swept her hair away from her ear as she read. Silver, inset with sapphires, they were things of beauty, and Squall tried not to think of who might have given them to her. She was the same person, he decided, with the same mannerisms and nervous habits, like chewing the end of her pen, but completely different at the same time, and it wasn't just the clothes.

The minutes ticked by, and Squall found himself staring at the clock hanging above the lecture screen. Questions and feelings swirling around his head, most of which he didn't quite understand, and the rest he flat-out ignored. The expensive earrings kept popping up and he burned to comment on them, but didn't want to hear any answer she might give. He dared not look at Rinoa, although he longed to see if she was in as much turmoil as he was.

He hoped it didn't show, but she had always been able to read him like a book, and that thought alone was uncomfortable.

Five minutes went by without a word being said and eventually Squall couldn't take it any more.

'I'm sorry, Rinoa, but I have to ask.' he caught her eye and sensed a vulnerability. 'What the hell are you...'

The door to the conference room slid open with a hiss of escaping air and Squall's question was cut off mid-flow. Xu strolled in holding a small plate with three hot dogs piled on top in a pyramid. If she was taken aback when she looked up and saw both Rinoa and Squall staring at her, she didn't show it.

'Rinoa.' she said pleasantly, setting down the plate in front of Squall and leaning across the table to offer the other girl her hand. 'It's nice to see you again. I hope getting here wasn't too stressful for you.'

'Not at all.' Rinoa replied, and Squall wondered if the girl had noted the intentional double meaning of Xu's question. 'I'm based in Deling, so it was a direct train ride to Winhill, a hotel overnight, before catching the helicopter this afternoon. It's been a while since I've spent any time in Winhill, so it was nice to visit again.'

'Beautiful little town,' Xu agreed as she took the seat next to Squall. Then got straight down to business. 'I've read your company's brief. Is there any information that you would like to add before we proceed?'

Rinoa blinked, surprised at the abrupt change in topic, but recovered quickly, pulling a couple of pieces of paper towards her.

'Um, yes actually. The time-scale mentioned in the brief has been brought forward. We don't think we have two weeks to recover the item any more. Our intelligence indicates that it must be recovered within 48 hours.'

Xu raised an eyebrow, and Squall felt taken aback enough to stop staring at the curve of Rinoa's neck. 'In that case, we're going to have to know more about the item we're being paid to recover.' Xu said simply. 'You know our policy on jobs like this, Rinoa, especially if the item is particularly dangerous.'

Rinoa nodded. 'If you speak to my superiors, tell them I put up more of a fight,' she said with a small smile, 'but the item is a prototype energy storage device, still in the experimental stages.'

'A battery?' Xu frowned. 'Galbatech is willing to spend over a million Gil on recovering a stolen battery?'

'A million Gil is nothing compared to the development costs of creating a new one. It's practically unique and invaluable to a number of long-term research projects. Losing it would set Galbatech back three years at least.' Rinoa revealed. Squall absently wondered if she had been authorised to tell them quite how desperate Galbatech was to get it back.

'What's with the advanced time line?' Xu asked, 'We understand the Timber Bears are behind the theft. Are they looking to sell it to a third party quickly?'

'No, we have no leads that would cause us to believe they'd sell it. Our intelligence says that they have their own plans for the device.'

'They're going to use it? What sort of things is it able to power? Does it have any limitations that we can rule out? Can they use it as a weapon?'

It was a game to Xu, Squall realised, this interrogation of Rinoa. She was deliberately skating around the central issue, getting every drop of information she could on the way to it. He still had a lot to learn about negotiation, he realised, because he would have asked if the item was dangerous by now, even though he was already pretty sure that it was, and that was the reason for the advanced time line.

Rinoa was getting a little rattled at the quick-fire questioning from Xu, so the SeeD backed off to let her recover.

'All I can tell you is that the device is still in development. It's not at a stage where it can be used effectively as a power source, and that's why we're worried. Our simulations have concluded that if the Bears try to use it to power...anything, it's just as likely to explode in their faces as it is to work.'

'When you say 'explode', what sort of magnitude are we talking about here?'

Rinoa shrugged. 'Depends on how badly they get it wrong. The device can store enough energy to power a small car for a month, so if they really get it wrong they could be leaving a sizeable crater. If they get it really wrong in a built up area...' she let the sentence hang.

Xu nodded, glanced at Squall, and then started scribbling furiously in her notebook. Her message was clear: '_your turn_'.

Sucking in a large breath, Squall leaned forward in his chair. 'Why me?' he asked quietly. Rinoa hadn't so much as glanced his way since Xu had entered the room, and she reluctantly turned to face him.

'Galbatech needs the best.' she said simply, her eyes fixed determinedly on his, 'And you're the best, Squall.'

Squall allowed himself a small grin. 'If that's the line you've been spinning Galbatech...'

'On the contrary, I've been very vocal in my opposition to this aspect of the deal.' she shot back, the familiar fire back in her eyes for the first time. 'How many missions have you been on in the past year, Squall? Two? Three? I'd much prefer to work with Zell or Selphie. They're still active, still training every day, still living their lives. _They_ haven't gotten lost behind a desk!'

Squall blinked, and Xu paused in her scribbling momentarily as Rinoa fell silent, slightly shocked by her own anger. The fire stayed behind her eyes though, and her glare was defiant.

The two SeeD glanced at each other and silently seemed to come to a telepathic understanding. 'And what if we agreed with your view?' Squall said softly, 'That I had more suitable SeeD for this kind of mission. Is there room to negotiate here?'

The surprise was clear on Rinoa's face. 'You mean you... You'd turn down the mission if it had to be you?'

Xu chuckled into her notebook, but said nothing. Squall sent her an annoyed glance. 'Not at all, I'm still active, but given your concerns and our... history,' he shrugged, 'There are better options available. I would highly recommend Selphie, and as it happens, she and Irvine are returning from a mission in...'

'It has to be you.' Rinoa broke in with a sigh, although she didn't look happy about saying it. 'I don't know why, but my instructions were explicit when it came to your involvement. I suppose my boss is a big fan.' The sarcasm wasn't becoming.

'Don't worry, I'll see the job through to the end.' Squall replied caustically, 'Unlike some people, I won't quit when the going gets tough.'

'Fine, that's settled then!' Xu said sharply, before Squall and Rinoa could score any more cheap points off each other. 'Squall will lead the team. The fee your company quoted in the brief is generous and we're happy to take it. Just confirm all the relevant information with me and leave the planning to us.' She scribbled a final word in her notebook and stood to shake Rinoa's hand again. 'You should have your stolen device back within 48 hours.'

Rinoa didn't move, as she was still glaring at Squall. 'There's one more thing.' she ground out between gnashed teeth. 'I'll be accompanying the team as an observer and specialist. You might need my expertise to move the device safely.'

Her gaze was still fixed on Squall, daring him to go back on his agreement, to quit, daring him to run away.

'Fine.' Squall growled, staring right back, 'Xu, find quarters for Miss Heartily and give her a pager.' he paused to fix Rinoa one last glare. 'We'll call you when we've come up with a plan.' He rose to his feet. 'Welcome back to Garden, Rinoa. Try to stick it out to the end this time.'

A ringing silence followed him from the room, which was broken by Xu with a comment that completely ignored the electric atmosphere emanating from the girl across the desk from her. She reached over and grabbed Squall's abandoned plate.

'Fancy a hot dog?'

* * *

Quistis shook her head in disbelief. 'You've got to be kidding me.' she said into her cellphone as she moved through a packed train carriage. 'Bet he loved that. Did they say much to each other?' It was small and cramped, and she had to shuffle through the small crowd of standing passengers next to the doors, innocently bumping into one on the way past. She raised her hand in apology and walked on.

'Well, if I'm honest I was expecting fireworks. That's almost disappointing.' she said, finding a seat and squeezing into it between a large man with an overstuffed rucksack between his legs and a grey-haired lady in her eighties. 'Well, he's never been good with his emotions. I'd be surprised if he knew what he wanted at this point.' The carriage clunked over a junction in the tracks and Quistis' shoulders rubbed gently against her two travelling companions. 'For the record, if it was me, I would have punched her lights out... No, I don't think that's an over reaction! She broke his heart!'

She eyed a woman opposite who was nervously checking her watch every twenty seconds, and a man standing a foot away who was carrying a poorly concealed gun in the waistline of his underwear. He had a cut above his left eye and was favouring his right leg, as if he was carrying an injury. 'Oh, she's hardly defenceless, now is she?' Concealed gun man reached around to scratch his behind and realised his gun was starting to fall out. He shoved it a little further down, looking around self-consciously as he did so. 'No kidding. If this goes well we should get them on the mats, make a proper spectacle of it. We could sell tickets.'

The train pulled into the station with a screech of breaks and Quistis' shoulders were rubbed some more. She shuffled into a more comfortable position as the large man got up and slung his rucksack over one of his massive shoulders. Nervous watch woman caught his eye and stood up too, at least thirty seconds before the train came to a stop. 'Dincht could referee, he likes a good scrap.' she said, leaning back into the new space. She laughed at something said on the other end of the phone, 'Maybe you're right. He never could stay impartial in a fight.'

The doors hissed open and rucksack, nervous watch and underwear weaponry all moved out with the crowd. Quistis stayed put, waiting for the flood to clear. 'No, she'd be taking bets and he'd be counting the money. I wouldn't trust them not to fix the match.' A buzzer sounded and the doors started to close. Quistis moved casually but quickly and was on the platform before they shut. Ahead of her were the three she had been watching, slinking away as a group. As she suspected he would, underwear weaponry was limping. She followed at a safe distance, still nonchalantly talking on her phone.

'What about you? We already know I'm not impartial in this, so that counts me out.' Putting her hand into her pocket she pulled out a set of keys that had originally been in underwear weapon's coat pocket before she had brushed past him as she walked to her seat. She put her hand in another pocket, feeling for the wallet she's swiped from rucksack. 'Right... You'd be on her side. I know you too well.' The wallet was practically empty of cash, just a couple of 10 Gil notes and spare change, but a driving licence identified the owner as Rourke J Pillion, of Number 25 Long Beach Rd, Timber.

'Anyway, I've found them. I'm on their tail now, so I'll call you back in a while with a location... Right... and try to keep them from killing each other, at least until I'm around to watch. Speak soon.'

Quistis put the phone and stolen wallet in her handbag and picked up her pace as the group disappeared around a corner. Time to find the door these keys opened.

* * *

Rinoa eyed the room suspiciously. It was twelve hours later, somewhere around quarter to eight in the morning, and she had been summoned to a briefing. She had needed no assistance finding the room, having used it many times before, but Xu sent a cadet to escort her anyway. Rinoa wondered if Squall's head of security thought she might be a security risk. Probably, she decided.

The room could seat ten, with standing room for another thirty, but only six chairs were full. Even so, the room felt small and claustrophobic to Rinoa as waves of unresolved emotion bounced around the room, mostly directed in her direction. She never thought she'd ever hope for this again, but as Squall was the last to arrive, she was praying that he got there quickly so they could get down to business.

On her right, Xu sat reading through her notebook of notes. Rinoa desperately wanted to see what was written there, but refrained from peering over Xu's shoulder. As the only person ignoring Rinoa, it was worth not knowing to maintain the peace. Next to her, however, was a face she had desperately wanted to avoid seeing. Zell had always been a good friend, but she knew the boy had trouble keeping his emotions in check, and they were clear to see on his face as he deliberately stared at the clock above the door with enough ferocity that Rinoa thought it likely it was going to catch fire. She wondered what on earth Squall and Xu were thinking when they included the martial artist in their plans.

On the other side of the table sat Selphie and Irvine. Irvine was pretending to sleep, but she had noticed his calculating stare a number of times peaking out from beneath the cowboy hat. Beside him, Selphie was actively trying to be cheerful, and had even attempted conversation with Rinoa before tapering off when Zell started mumbling under his breath. The poor girl seemed conflicted, and Rinoa allowed herself to hope she might at least have one friend left at Garden.

The last person in the room was a stranger to Rinoa, but that didn't stop the girl staring at her. She'd been introduced as Sarya. Blonde, beautiful, and if she hadn't been wearing a SeeD badge of rank pinned to her red cardigan, Rinoa would have completely disregarded the girl as a typical airhead secretary, mainly based on the way the girl wouldn't stop staring. Rinoa could sense the pent up questions that the girl wanted to ask, and was unbelievably grateful that the girl was able to resist.

On the dot of eight, Squall entered the room looking considerably fresher than he had twelve hours ago. It was obvious that he'd managed to get some sleep, and had at least found a comb to run though his hair. He was back in his signature fur-lined jacket, and his gunblade holster hung at his hip, but it was empty. Rinoa found that strange, but thought best not to comment.

'Sorry I'm late.' he said, grabbing the seat beside Irvine, closest to the door and conveniently the furthest from her. 'Bad hair day.'

The joke was weak, but Rinoa appreciated it nonetheless. It was a sign that, for a while at least, they would forget their differences and concentrate on the mission.

'The target is a package, stolen from a Galbatech facility sometime in the past 24 hours.' Squall started, tapping a few buttons on an interface built into the table to bring up an image on the far wall. It was a blurry photo of the package being stolen. 'Our job is to assist Galbatech's representative in retrieving the package safely, with an emphasis on 'safely'. There is a time limit on this mission; the clock currently stands at 36 hours.' He looked down the table to the SeeD Rinoa didn't recognise across from her. 'If you would, Sarya.'

Sarya cleared her throat. 'The thieves have been identified as a small radical faction of the Timber Bears resistance group. Let by a man named Rourke Pillion,' the screen, apparently responding to her voice, flicked up a picture of a large man with dark skin and beady little eyes. 'He's known to the Galbadian Secret Service, who consider him extremely dangerous and possibly unstable. Their file on him accredits twelve separate attacks on G-Army units in the past to him, resulting in three deaths. He's also suspected to have been involved in the bombing of the Galbadian embassy in Dollet five years ago, and the attempted hijacking and kidnapping of President Deling three years ago, although that one was actually us.' her gaze flicked to Rinoa for a second, before she continued. She tapped a key on the desk and a road map of Deling City appeared on the screen, as well as a schematic for a building. 'In the past ten hours our operative in Deling picked up their trail and followed them to the premises where we believe they're operating from – a small basement flat in central Deling City. We have managed to procure keys to the rear access, although the operative reports that a forced entry option is viable.'

From a pocket she produced a laser pointer pen and highlighted one room in particular. A small one without any windows directly in the centre of the plot, not much larger than a pantry. 'We believe that this room is likely the place where they'd keep the device, although this is based purely on normal behavioural patterns for someone of Pillion's character.'

'Do we have any further information on the device?' Irvine said, flashing the girl a dazzling smile as he did so. Selphie kicked him under the table.

Sarya glanced at Rinoa. 'I'll leave the specifics of the device to Miss Heartily, but the operative believed that they're carrying the device around in a large canvas rucksack, dark blue in colour, full of what appeared to be mostly clothes.'

Squall nodded and turned his gaze on Rinoa. All signs of their previous argument were gone, as was any trace of feeling. 'Rinoa. Do you have anything to add with regards to the particulars of the device?'

She nodded, wishing she had thought to prepare some slides. 'The item is an energy storage device of experimental design. I can't go into the technical aspects of design, but you should all be aware that it is extremely unstable under a number of conditions. At room temperature, under normal pressures and stresses, the device is relatively safe, but excess heat or movement has the potential to set off a chain reaction that will not only destroy the device, but take a good chunk of what's around it with it.' She paused and looked up at the screen, where the fuzzy picture of the thieves was still visible in the top left corner. 'The real danger comes if they attempt to use it. In the lab we use liquid nitrogen to keep the device cool, and even then we monitor the temperature very closely. A year ago we had an accident with a similar device despite it being supercooled. If the Bears try to use the device to power something without cooling it, it's likely to blow up in their faces. If goes off in their apartment, it could take out half the street, or alternatively, half the city.'

'What about a description of the device?' Xu probed.

'In the lab we keep it in a small stainless steel briefcase, about two feet long, one high and six inches wide. The case is equipped with a number of inertial dampening fields and temperature control equipment that make transporting the device much safer. Let's hope they've not disposed of it. The device itself is much smaller. The best way of describing it is as a smooth cube of translucent blue glass, couple of inches high and wide. The joke in the office is that it looks like an expensive paperweight. When power levels are high, it emits a cool blue light. If the light starts to shift towards green, then you have to start getting worried.'

Selphie raised her hand. 'If it's a smooth cube, how do you access the energy inside?'

'How we interface with the stored energy is classified,' Rinoa said, wincing as she did so, 'but attaching electrodes or, heaven forbid, trying to break open the device is highly inadvisable.'

'Thank you, Rinoa.' Squall's voice gave away no hint of being thankful in any way. It hurt. 'Zell. You're up.'

Zell, who hadn't said one word since entering the room, nodded. 'Quick and efficient.' he said abruptly. He tapped a button and the schematic of the house enlarged and named dots appeared at the entrances. 'Irvine and myself will knock on the front door, posing as gas inspectors. We hope this will allow us at least a brief look inside the house whilst we plant some remote-detonated stun and smoke grenades, the plan being to set them off and secure the targets on re-entry. If it doesn't get us inside then we force an entry then and there. On my signal, Squall and Rinoa will enter through the rear door using the keys acquired by the asset.' he tapped another button and the plan played out on the screen.

'Should be short and sweet. Take down the bad guys, find the device and get out of there. Selphie will be cruising nearby in Ragnarok for a quick extraction. Any questions?'

'Capabilities of the Timber Bears?' Squall asked.

Zell shrugged. 'Negligible. They're suited to underground operations, reasonably skilled at recon and making IEDs, but not combat. They shouldn't be equipped with anything more powerful than a sub-machine gun, so only light armour required.' he glanced at Rinoa, then addressed Selphie. 'You'll be carrying two heavy-duty bomb disposal suits in the Ragnarok, in case you need them, but that's just a contingency.'

'Not sure I know how to defuse an experimental light box...' Selphie said, looking towards Squall. He nodded.

'That's why Rinoa is here. She's the expert.' he eyed her carefully. She kept her face impassive and hoped he couldn't sense how out of place she felt. 'Any problems with the device, she'll step in. Otherwise, try to keep out the way.'

The last comment was aimed at her. 'Understood.' she said. If they didn't want her help, that was fine by her.

'Good.' said Xu, who apparently was at the briefing simply to act as a safety buffer between Zell and Rinoa. 'Selphie, skids up in an hour. Five hour cruising time, you should be in position by 1400.' She nodded to each of them, Rinoa last of all. 'Good luck.' she said, and the look in her eyes was that she believed Rinoa might need it.

* * *

The road was dark and cold as Quistis walked down it for the second time that day. The first time had been a dud – her contact had delayed at the last minute, citing traffic problems. Pulling closed her long coat tighter against the wind, she made for the entrance to a small café she's spotted on her first pass. She nodded politely to the young man who was clearing a table outside, probably a student trying to pay his way through law school, and ducked inside. There was a welcoming buzz of chatter inside and, finding a seat next to the window, she removed her coat and hung it on the back of the chair before sitting. From her bag she took out a novel she had been working on for about a month.

'Can I get you anything?' another young person asked her, this one a pretty brunette. She had bags under her eyes, and at a guess Quistis would have said the girl had another two months before she quit college altogether.

Quistis smiled at her. 'Yes, I'd like two coffees please. One black, and one with milk, no sugar.'

The waitress scribbled in her pad and scuttled off. Order placed, Quistis scanned the street before picking up her book. She was trying something new with this one, on Zell's recommendation. He thought she was focused too much on crime dramas, and she had reluctantly admitted as much, so he recommended the book she was holding now. Set in the past, in the aftermath of Hyne's disappearance, the world was a simple place of castles and pig farms, knights and maidens, and told the story of the first sorceress rising to power. In truth the story was more focused on the sorceress' sworn knight, Vascaroon of legend, and his adventures as protector and lover. It had the potential to be great.

Quistis wasn't impressed by it though. The prose were boring, the pace too slow. Some of the characters were likeable, but the good ones were inevitably all killed off in some suicidal but noble way. What really annoyed her about the book though, was the complete reliance of the sorceress on her knight. To Quistis' mind, sorceresses didn't need protection. In a world without para-magic, sorceresses should have stuck fear into the populous, not walk around meekly hiding behind her big famous knight.

When she'd told Zell this, he immediately told her what a good thing it was that she wasn't a sorceress. She'd laughed and agreed.

The coffee was steaming hot when it arrived and, dragging the milky coffee towards her, Quistis put the book down to blow on the surface. She scanned the street again, then the clock on the wall. Her contact was late.

Returning to the book, she read a couple of interesting pages depicting a battle, but soon lost interest when the scene switched back to the confines of the sorceress' bed chamber. That was another thing – there was too much sex in the book. She got that back then there wasn't much else to do; fight, eat, sleep, plan for war, fuck, fight, eat, sleep; it was a never ending saga. But was there really any call for all the depictions of it?

The bell above the door chimed and Quistis looked up with relief from the book. 'You're late.' she said, although her smile belayed her tone of voice. 'I got you a coffee.'

Squall dropped himself into the seat opposite. 'Air traffic is terrible this time of the morning.' he said, 'and have you ever tried to find a clear spot to drop someone off in Deling? I had to walk eight blocks. Good book?'

'It's terrible. I'll be having words with Zell on his choice of reading material.' Quistis didn't bother to feign sympathy for Squall's long walk. 'Good to see you out of the house.' she said instead, 'Must be the first time in...'

'Not now, Quistis.' Squall pinched the bridge of his nose, and Quistis immediately recognised the look. 'So the rumours are true.' she said softly, 'She really is back.'

Squall grunted. 'Not for long.' his friend caught his eye, 'It's only one contract.' he explained, then took a sip of his coffee as a way of breaking eye contact. 'Anyway, what have you got for me?'

Quistis was tempted to press her friend for information, but decided against it. She'd find out soon enough. 'There are three of them. The large bruiser you already know.' she slid the stolen driver's licence across the table and Squall nodded at the picture. 'The other two are unknowns. A woman of about thirty, and a younger man, possibly in his early twenties, considers himself a bit of a gangster. He's the only one I've seen with a weapon, but that's only because he was so poor at hiding it. Pillion is the only one that moves like he's got any training, but as I say, the other two are unknowns.'

'You have some keys too?'

Quistis pretended to take Squall's hand and subtly pressed the keys into his palm. She held it a moment and gazed lovingly into his eyes to sell the move, then let go and sipped her coffee.

'The bronze one is for the back door. No idea what the others are for.' she pointed out a large silver key. 'That one could possibly be for a locked box, looking at the style of the cut but good luck finding it, and the other is likely a padlock key, but again, good luck finding it. It's possible that both are in the apartment, but we haven't been able to recon the inside.'

'Don't worry about it.' Squall said, sliding the keys and the driver's licence into his pocket before anyone spotted them. 'You've done well.' he grinned. 'Who am I kidding, you always do well.'

Quistis laughed. 'Can you believe that I wanted to teach once upon a time?'

'Hardly. You were always better in the field.' The serving girl wandered close and started wiping tables needlessly. 'You have any plans for this afternoon?' Squall said, indicating an end to the conversation.

'I might have a date this evening.' Quistis said cryptically, as she downed the rest of her coffee.

Squall eyes her suspiciously as they stood. 'Which end of the spectrum are you going for this month? Billionaire playboy, or struggling artist?'

Quistis punched him on the arm. It looked playful, and Squall pretended it was for the sake of the staff and customers, but he was sure it would bruise.

'If you must know, he's a lecturer at the university.' she said as they stepped out into the chill of the afternoon autumn sun. 'He teaches corporate law, is patron of the debating society...'

'And fifty Gil says he thinks you're a student of his.' Squall finished for her.

Quistis peered at Squall closely. 'When did you get so cynical? I didn't think you even had a sense of humour.'

Squall shrugged. 'Must be the fresh air.' he quipped, then turned and started walking away. 'Play safe, Quistis.' he said over his shoulder.

'You too!' she called back. 'And Squall... If you want me to, you know...'

Squall's laugh echoed down the street. 'If I wasn't so concerned that you were being serious, I might take you up on that. I'll be fine; it's only one job. In a couple of hours this will all be over, and I can get back to forgetting about it. No need for you to, _you know_.' he grinned at her. 'She would probably kick your ass though.'

'Good bye, Squall.' Quistis said, ignoring his last comment. 'And good luck!'

* * *

Zell itched. Sitting in the driver's seat of a fake 'Deling Gas and Electric' van, he and Irvine were waiting for the green light to go to work on the building just across the street. Outside the weather was clouding over, a fresh northerly wind blew autumnal leaves down the street despite there being no trees around, and every now and again a spot or two of rain would hit the windshield. The clock on the dashboard showed 17.12; they were running behind schedule. Inside they had the heater on full blast and the radio on playing something Irvine had picked.

'..._and now, number 24 in the Country charts this week, it's the Jimmy and the Heymakers with their new hit 'Mama want a sow but Papa couldn't give a cow'. Yea-ha!_'

'I can't believe you actually listen to this crap.' Zell grumbled as he tugged at the boiler suit he had over his normal clothes. It was grubby, old, and the previous owner obviously had a penchant for one penny sweats, because there was an entire bag in one of the pockets. Zell had resisted so far.

Irvine grinned, a yellow baseball cap that matched his boiler suit pulled down over his eyes in place of his usual cowboy hat. 'It's for the lyrics, man.' he said in his Galbadian drawl, 'Each song is like a story.'

'If you like stories, read a book!' Zell exclaimed, 'I just leant a really good one to Quistis. I can tell her to give it to you next.'

Irvine raised the bill of his cap with a finger to peer at Zell. 'The one about the sorceress and her knight? What's it called... 'First Knight'?' Zell nodded and Irvine relaxed the cap back down. 'She's already showed it to me. You're sick, man.'

'Wha?!' Zell gaped. 'What's wrong with it? It's got fighting, and knights, and castles...'

'And sex, lots of sex.' Irvine completed the sentence. 'Like I said; you're sick. You should get yourself a girl, man.' he peeked out from under his cap again. 'I can hook you up if you like. I know a nice girl in the library that's...'

'_We're in position._' Squall's voice cut across the conversation and both men sat up a little straighter. '_Standing by for your signal._'

Zell grabbed the microphone on his lapel. 'Understood. Making a move now.' he looked at Irvine. 'Let's go.'

The air outside was cool and Zell was suddenly glad of his extra layer. It was a little big and hung off his body a bit too much, but he'd told himself that he was going with scruffy, so it didn't matter. He opened up the side door to the van and pulled out two small toolboxes. He handed one to Irvine.

Closing up the van again they crossed the street and walked up to the property. Their target was the basement flat, and a series of concrete steps led down to a sunken doorway. It was narrow - they'd have to go single file. Zell went first, knocking on the door as soon as he reached it. 'Deling Gas and Electric!' he called. He looked over his shoulder at Irvine to see him readying a small pistol that could be concealed in the top of one of his cowboy boots. Strangely, they didn't look too out of place with the legs of the boiler suit tucked in the top.

'We're at the door,' Zell mumbled into his lapel microphone, 'Standby.' He knew Squall wasn't out of practice enough to think he had to acknowledge.

There was no answer, so Zell knocked again, and then once on the window. Still nothing.

'No one's home, Boss.' he said into his lapel. 'Fancy letting us in?'

'_Copy that,_' came Squall's reply, '_Entering through the back door. Standby._'

Irvine snorted and Zell looked around to see a large grin on Irvine's face. '_Entering through the back door..._' the gunslinger imitated Squall's accent, 'Do you think he realises he's being dirty?'

Zell shook his head in disbelief. 'And you have the nerve to call _me_ sick.'

'Just your book selection, although I suppose it could be worse. I once dated this girl at Galbadia Garden who was into reading...'

'I don't want to know, Irvine!' Zell said loudly, 'I really don't.'

'Come to think of it, she'd be perfect for you.' Irvine continued, unperturbed. 'I wonder if she's still single...'

The door in front of them opened from inside and Zell pushed through it before Irvine could continue his current thought process. 'All clear.' Squall said as he was brushed aside with the door. He looked to Irvine for an explanation and only received a shrug and a grin in response.

The inside was dark and dusty, and obviously not lived in. Zell made his way towards the large room that had access to the suspected utility cupboard that they suspected the device was in. Rinoa was already there, and for a second Zell forgot that he was angry with her. 'Anything?' he said. She shook her head.

'Cleared out.' she said. In her hand she had some kind of electronic instrument that was clicking in an alarmingly familiar way.

'A Geiger counter?' Zell asked, backing away cautiously. 'I thought you said the device was safe!'

Rinoa looked over her shoulder at him and glared. 'What I said was the device was 'mostly' safe at rest.' she turned off the instrument. 'Don't worry, it's not a Geiger counter, although it works on the same principle. It measures magical resonance fields. The device is magical in nature, so it expels a lot of waste magical energy, harmless to humans.' she added, seeing Zell's unconvinced look. 'This will help us track where they've taken it.'

Squall popped his head into the room and addressed at Rinoa. 'Anything?'

She shrugged. 'It _was_ here, but not any more. There's so much magical energy in the air that it could have been airlifted out of here and I wouldn't be able to tell.'

'Don't worry, I think we have another lead!' Irvine's voice called from another room. 'You're gunna wanna see this, Boss!'

Zell exchanged a glance with Squall and the three of them all moved towards Irvine's voice. They filed into a small bedroom with just enough space for them all to stand. They didn't need Irvine to explain.

One wall was covered by a massive map of Deling City. Scraps of paper were pinned everywhere, some were newspaper clippings, others appeared to be bank statements, credit card receipts, train tickets, blurry photos. A few locations on the map were circled in thick red pen.

'They've been tracking the movements of government and military officials.' Irvine pointed at one particular cluster of paper, larger than the rest. 'All this relates to President Dozer. They've got times and stations and seat numbers of every train he's been on since he was elected to power three months ago. They know where he goes, who's with him, and can probably predict his movements more accurately than his Director for Transport.'

Zell pointed to another cluster. 'This one is for Marc Frestren, security advisor to the President and an ex-General who saw time in Timber during the war.' he scanned another cluster. 'General Tyron, head of the G-Army's anti-terrorist unit.' he stepped back to take it all in. 'How did they get all this information? Or rather, how were they not caught acquiring it?'

'You don't see it, do you?' Rinoa said, looking them each in the eye. 'None of you. Look at the articles! Read between the lines! What links all these people besides the obvious?'

'They've all pissed off the Timber Bears at some point?' Irvine said, somewhat stupidly. 'Their names all have an 'r' in them?'

Zell smirked. 'That puts you in hot water, hey Irvine?'

Rinoa swore. 'SeeD special forces, my arse!' she growled, 'They're all on a train right now! Every single one of them!' she pointed to one of the locations marked by a big red circle. 'This is the main hub of the Deling rail network. It's right outside Government House, and all these people live outside of the city, to the west!' she pointed to the half-ring of smaller red circles on the map. She snatched one particular article from the wall and thrust it at Squall. 'Read!' She demanded.

Taking the article, Squall scanned it and felt the stomach drop out the bottom of his body. He read aloud. '_...Deling Rail Network is proud to announce...first of it's kind... _yada yada..._ The world's first dedicated train for government officials, travelling from Deling Central to the well-known suburb of Monterosa Heights where the rich and famous have made their homes._' he scanned the rest of the article. 'It was launched a month ago, giving them plenty of time to look up its schedule, but, hang on! It also says that the train is bullet proof, fire proof and bomb proof. It has a dedicated security team, and more electronic countermeasures than the Ragnarok. They should be perfectly fine, even if they do try to blow it up.' He looked at Rinoa. 'That is what you're proposing that they're planning, correct?'

She nodded, and then started fidgeting with her hair. Squall knew what that meant.

'What aren't you telling us?' he demanded.

Rinoa looked up at the ceiling and sighed. 'I may have been a little conservative in my estimate of the power in the device.' she admitted. She reached for her scanning instrument and switched it on. It started clicking wildly.

'You lied to us!' Zell said, feeling his anger rise. He didn't want to hit the girl, she had been his friend once upon a time, but the urge was getting stronger.

Rinoa spun on him. 'I didn't lie to you! I passed on the information that I'd been given. Everything I said was correct as far as I was aware.' ignoring Zell's clenched fists, she looked to Squall. If it was for a sign that he believed her, Zell hoped that Squall's shields were back up.

'And now?' Squall said instead. 'What does that mean?' he said, indicating the clicking instrument in Rinoa's hand.

'You said that Quistis saw them bring the device here close to twenty hours ago?' she asked, and Squall nodded. 'Well if that's the case, then the readings should be much less than they are. It takes time for energy to leak out in the volume we see here, even without the protective casing.' she twisted a dial on the instrument and frowned.

'What if the device was here the whole time, and Quistis just saw them returning from a reconnaissance run?' Zell said, his professional curiosity overriding his need to argue.

Rinoa shook her head. 'That's still not enough time.'

'What does that leave us with then?' Irvine said. He was still studying the wall, reading each article closely, looking for something, anything else that they might have missed.

'It leaves us with only one explanation; the device has something close to ten times as much power stored in it as I was originally told.'

Silence fell over the room.

'Is that enough?' Squall asked quietly, and everyone knew what he was referring to. Rinoa looked him in the eye, all animosity between them temporarily forgotten.

'If they deliberately detonate the device with that much power stored inside it, you can forget about anyone in the train. I'd be more worried about the lives of the millions of people in Deling City.'

Silence settled again as they processed that information.

'Here!' Irvine said suddenly, drawing their gaze back to the map. He was pointing to a lone red circle that at first didn't highlight anything in particular. 'It's a railway junction, so there's easy road access. All they'd have to do is climb a security fence, and that's clearly within their capabilities.'

Zell studied the map quickly. The junction was an hour outside of the city by road, approximately half way between Deling Central and Monterosa Heights. The junction was likely a lonely place where no one would notice a break in or a bomb before it was too late.

'Let's go.' Squall said, and he and Rinoa practically ran from the room. 'Selphie, pick us up from the street asap!' he said into his watch as he went. 'We've got maybe less than half an hour before half the city blows up!'

Zell wondered if he'd ever heard such ominous words.

* * *

Ragnarok broke the sound barrier directly over Victory Arch, ignoring a key rule that Squall had put in place three years ago. Whilst the world was well aware that SeeD had a flying Garden, they were blissfully ignorant of the fact that SeeD also possessed an Estharian spacecraft with high-level weaponry, and whilst the Ragnarok had a hyper-effective absorbent hull which made her practically invisible to radar, she was still visible to the naked eye, and sonic booms tended to attract the eye. Luckily, the SeeD Commander was on board and was able to give authorisation to breach protocol this time, in the interests of saving the city and everyone in it.

'_ETA – Three minutes._' Selphie's voice said over the intercom as the team prepared for redeployment in the cargo hold. '_We may have ruined Quistis' plans for tonight though. The embassy is going to want to talk about the spaceship over Deling City._'

Squall sighed. It had been a good ruse while it lasted. Ragnarok had been sighted many times in less populated areas, and they'd always been able to cover it up, but this would be too big an issue to cover up now. He wouldn't be surprised if film footage emerged within hours. He looked forward to watching the ten o'clock news.

'What's the plan?' Rinoa said. She was panting a little from running the two blocks to where Selphie had managed to find space to land, but nothing unusual for someone without junctions. He was tempted to offer her Ifrit, the GF had always worked well with her, but then he reasoned that if she had wanted and alliance she knew where SeeD got all of theirs.

'Irvine, get up to the bridge and contact Quistis. She'll need to be warned about both the media storm that's about to hit, and then tell her about our plan and the consequences if we fail. She'll need to contact all our operatives in the area and get them underground.'

Irvine rose and crossed to the door. 'What about the Galbadian government?' he said suddenly, pausing in the doorway. 'They should know.'

Squall nodded his approval and Irvine disappeared. The Galbadians did have the right to know, even if they had no power over the situation. He turned to the brawler next to him.

'Zell, get out of that boiler suit and get the rappelling gear down here. Three sets.' and when Zell questioned the number with a raise of an eyebrow he added, 'Irvine is staying behind to use Ragnarok as a firing platform. The secret is out, so we might as well use her our best advantage.'

Before Zell had even left the cargo hold, Squall had turned on Rinoa. 'Are you prepared to continue?' he asked. He saw the question in her eyes, so he elaborated. 'As a representative of the client, you have the option to cancel the contract at any time. If you think running after this device is getting too dangerous for you, then I'll give the order to pull out.'

Rinoa looked at him like she'd never really seen him before. 'I can't... I wouldn't do that!' she said, shocked, 'Do you really think that little of me? I can't believe you'd even ask me that!'

Squall was puzzled by her anger for a moment before he realised what was happening. She thought he was referring to her running away from Garden two years ago, that he somehow was trying to imply that she might chose her own survival over the survival of a city as a matter of course. In short that he thought she was some sort of coward.

'No, Rinoa. You don't understand. As team leader I'm obliged to remind you...'

'Fuck you, Squall! I did what I had to do back then, but that doesn't mean that I don't follow things through!' Squall really didn't want to hear this now, if ever. He held up a hand in an attempt to calm her down, but it had next to no effect. 'Or is it because I'm not some super-strong SeeD, you think I'm just a silly little girl that needs protecting? That you're my knight and I should swoon whenever you come into view? Grow up, Squall. I left because I felt lost, because Garden and _you_... I was alone in a place full of people! You're all so blinkered to your work, so focused on the rest of the world's problems, training to do this, or mutilate someone with that, you all forget to look to your own! I was lucky if I saw you three times a week! It was like I was in love with a ghost!'

Squall had waited a long time to hear her reasons for leaving, and some of what she said touched nerves, but now there were more important things he had to do. 'Rinoa, Stop! I don't want to hear it!' he said sharply. 'I'm contractually obliged to inform you of your options, but if you don't want to know, that's your problem.' he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. 'Stay here and try to calm yourself down.' _and regain what composure you have left,_ he added in his head, but thought better than to say it. 'I'll be on the bridge, trying to find us a way out of this situation that doesn't result in us all dying.'

He exited quickly, before Rinoa could respond. He therefore missed the horrified look on Rinoa's face when she processed what had just happened.

Still reeling from Rinoa's impromptu outburst of truth, Squall stepped into the bridge a minute later. Selphie was peering down through the glass under her feet, whilst Irvine was talking quietly but quickly into a headset at the communications desk. He nodded to Squall, but didn't pause to talk to him.

Squall walked over to the pilot's chair, where Selphie was still ducking her head to look between her knees. 'What've you got?' he said.

Selphie jumped and Ragnarok veered wildly to port. She recovered quickly, as did Ragnarok. 'Geeze, Squall! Don't sneak up on a girl like that!' she wined, 'Almost gave me a heart attack!'

'Less complaining, more telling me what's going on.' he said as calmly as he could. He really wasn't in the mood. Selphie noted the tone of his voice and gave him a long sideways glance, but didn't otherwise comment.

'I think I've found the vehicle.' she said, pointing at a mud-splattered four by four speeding down the road half a mile beneath them. 'The ship's computers automatically picked up the plates and cross referenced it to the Galbadian vehicle register. It's owned by Rourke.'

Despite the black mood that had very recently fallen over Squall, he couldn't help but to ask, 'It can do that?'

Selphie shrugged. 'Guess so. I'll ask Marin about it next time we take her for repairs.' Marin was one of the friendlier Estharian engineers that Laguna had detailed to service the Ragnarok on behalf of Garden. Where many of the others saw SeeD's ownership of the craft as theft, Marin was more philosophical on the subject.

'Why are we matching their speed?' Squall was back to business. 'I thought you were taking us to the rail junction?'

'I had an idea.' Selphie said. Squall was immediately worried. 'They're driving through fields, alone on the road. Why don't we take them out now?' Her eyes were bright with enthusiasm. 'One blast of the main cannon and 'boom!', no more bomb threat!'

'It's too dangerous.' said a voice from behind them both. Squall and Selphie turned to see Rinoa enter the bridge. Her face was a mask, but Squall still could read her well enough to know that she was trying very hard to act like nothing had happened. He appreciated the effort. 'We discovered back in the apartment that the device is likely storing around ten times the energy we originally thought. Blow it up now, and you could lose half the city.'

'Plus,' added Squall, 'the contract is to recover the device, not destroy it.'

'If it comes down to the greater good...' Rinoa started, but was silenced by a raised hand.

'In this case, the detonation of that device is definitely counter to the greater good. At this point, I'm not even going to consider it as an option.'

Selphie frowned. 'So what do you want me to do then? I could shoot out their tires, if you want.'

Squall shook his head. 'Still too dangerous. If they crash, the device could explode anyway.' he looked to Rinoa for confirmation and she nodded. 'Our only option is to wait for them to stop at the junction and take them down before they plant it.'

'They won't need much time,' Rinoa warned him. 'If it was me, I'd just tie it to the track. The collision with the train would be more than enough to set it off.'

'That doesn't leave them much time to get away.' Selphie pointed out. 'If it's as powerful as you say, they're going to want time to escape the blast radius. Tying it to the track is too obvious. Someone might notice it there before the train hits.'

'Not relevant.' Irvine said suddenly. All three turned to look at the cowboy. He was now sitting at the tactical station and was tapping furiously. 'I've looked up the train times, and based on our present speed...' he tapped a final button and a message popped up on the holographic display. Squall, read it backwards through the holographic display.

'They're running late.' he concluded. 'By the time they get there, the train will have already past.'

Irvine waved a finger. 'Correction. The train will be _passing_.'

Squall frowned and shared a worried look with Rinoa which was painfully reminiscent of past times. 'What the hell are they planning then?'

* * *

The off-roader bounced along the country road at breakneck speeds. The road was mercifully clear of traffic, and since they'd left the city they hadn't seen one pedestrian. The faint sound of the jet engine of a passing plane was barely audible above the truck's diesel engine, and the grey sky was threatening to rain again. At the wheel, Gwen was driving furiously, pausing to look down at her watch ever thirty seconds or so. She was getting nervous again.

Roarke turned in the passenger seat to check on Flynt. He had taken a beating back at the facility the other night, and Roarke was concerned that he might have damaged a ligament in his knee. The kid was meant to have helped him take down any security that got in their way, but it looked like he was going to have to do that himself now – Gwen was useless without a gun, and everything had to happen silently if it was going to work at all.

Beside him, Gwen checked her watch again.

'We best not be late.' he growled at her, knowing that it would make her more nervous. She immediately checked her watch again. 'We've only got a very small window.'

Gwen didn't like him, he knew. She was a couple of years older than he was, a third of his weight and opinionated like the day was long. Her opinion of him was lacking at best. Nevertheless, she followed the orders he gave her, and that's all Roarke really cared about.

Flynt was another matter altogether. He was hardly out of diapers and thought he was the shit because he'd once spent a month at some mercenary training camp before being kicked out for smoking pot. Too cool for school – that's how he saw himself, and orders were for lesser humans. Roarke had to admit that the kid could fight well though. He suspected that Flynt had a Guardian Force, which made him also suspect that the mercenary institution had been Garden, but Roarke didn't ask questions about people's past. Made them less likely to ask about his.

He fingered the stainless steel case resting on his knees. He'd opened it only once, back in the facility to ensure he'd picked up the right package, and what he had seen scared him shitless. Para-magic he could deal with. He understood the process. Draw, store, cast – boom! Simple, even if drawing magic without a GF was like trying to draw blood from a stone. But the..._thing_... in this case was an unknown. It was mad made, but it smelt of magic, and Roarke always trusted his nose.

This whole operation smelt wrong, for that matter.

'There!' Flynt shouted, pointing out the window. 'It's the train!'

'We're going to miss it...' Roarke growled.

Gwen checked her watch again. 'We're not going to miss it.' she said stubbornly, 'It's just a little further.'

'As long as '_just a little further_' means '_we've arrived with time to spare_', I might just refrain from killing you.'

She ignored him.

Roarke watched the train's engine catch up to them as it sped down a track parallel to the road. When it started overtaking them, he began to get anxious. He was about to start growling again when Gwen suddenly jerked the steering wheel.

'What the!' Roarke yelled, scrabbling to stop the stainless steel case from crashing into anything solid as the vehicle swerved violently. As he got the case under control he looked up just in time to fear for his life as the truck careered head first into a chain-link fence. He braced for impact, cradling the case in his barrel of a chest, but when it came, the force was much less than he'd been expecting. He looked out the rear windscreen to see that the entire panel of the fence had come away – a sliding gate, he realised.

'Told you we wouldn't be late.' Qwen shouted over the sound of the engine as she floored the gas pedal to keep up with the train that they were now directly alongside. They were following a bare earthen service road, the reason they had picked this particular part of the track. She wrestled with the wheel to keep them on the loose surface.

Roarke looked to Flynt. 'Let's go. Pop the catch!'

* * *

Above them, Rinoa stood alongside Squall and his team, watching from an open cargo bay. Prepared to drop directly to the dirt, they were all equipped with rappelling gear, but now they watched, unsure of the best way of countering this threat.

'They're going to climb aboard!' Zell yelled over the wind. 'I'll bet you anything that they'll climb aboard!'

Below, the roof of the truck suddenly came away from the chassis, revealing the three people within; two men and a woman, who was driving. It took the two men less than a second to spot the large red spacecraft hovering above them, and for a moment or two they looked up bewildered.

'They've spotted us.' Irvine said unhelpfully. He was crouched to one side, peering through the scope of a high-powered sniper rifle set up on the sloping floor of the cargo hold. 'The two guys have grappling hooks, and the larger one is holding what appears to be a large stainless steel case.' he turned to Rinoa. 'Your device?'

She nodded. She didn't need a zoom to recognise the object. She thanked whatever god was listening that they still had it.

'I've got a clear shot on the skinny one.' Irvine called out. His trigger finger was already squeezing.

'No! That truck is moving about like a jack-in-the-box. You could easily hit the case.' Squall called back. The sharpshooter relaxed his finger, but maintained his aim. 'If you get a clear shot without the case in the frame, by all means take it, but not until that case is well clear. Understood?'

'Aye-aye!' Irvine called out.

Squall turned to Rinoa. 'You still know how to repel, right?' he asked her quietly. He was trying to spare her feelings by not broadcasting the question to Zell and Irvine, but it irked her anyway.

'Of course I remember.' she snapped, 'Not that any of us need them from this height.' A drop of twenty feet without ropes would have been a significant fall to a normal person, but SeeD had junctions, and Rinoa was a sorceress. She was more than capable of using magic to arrest her fall.

She watched as Squall judged the distance, and then nod in agreement. 'Good point. Don't bother rappelling, Zell!' he called to the martial artist, 'Just jump!' Zell grinned and gave him a thumbs up.

And then jumped.

'No! Not yet!' Squall called out, but it was too late. Zell was already sailing through the air. For one horrifying second, Rinoa thought he had missed his target – the roof of the train – but in fact he had been spot on.

Zell crashed into the back of the truck with the force of a small explosion. His junction-hardened skin and toughened body created a sizeable dent in the bodywork just behind the back seat, and a moment later he had thrown his first punch. The larger man had already used his grapnel to swing himself across to the train, but the second, not much more than a kid, was struggling. Zell's punch landed on his knee and there was a loud crack as something gave in it. The kid cried out and crumpled back into the car, where he hit his head and promptly fell into unconscious. Zell started advancing on the driver.

So busy with watching Zell, Rinoa almost missed Squall's jump to the top of the train. He made it look easy, landing with enough grace that he left no dent in the metal plate. He looked back up to her and beckoned.

She stepped forward. 'Best put my money where my mouth is.' She said to herself under her breath. In spite of her earlier bravado, the distance didn't appear half as close as she'd thought. Squall was beckoning again.

Rinoa jumped, and had to consciously not close her eyes as she did so. There was a moment of weightlessness, and then the train was coming up at her. Too fast. She stuck her hands out in front of her and cast _aero_. A violent burst of wind buffeted her and then her feet hit the metal. Instinctively she went into a roll, she felt something give in her shoulder, and then she knew that she had underestimated her speed. She came out of the roll on her feet, not in the centre of the carriage but to the side, and there was nowhere to step to arrest her speed. She was going to fall straight off onto the opposite track.

Suddenly her arm felt like it was being ripped from its socket. Pain radiated up her arm and shoulder, and she heard herself scream. Then the air before her was retreating, the train was back in sight. An arm unceremoniously reached around her waste and pulled her in the last step. She clung to the body tightly, more scared than she could remember ever being in a long time, and more grateful to be alive.

It was only then, after a fleeting moment's feeling of absolute comfort and safety, that Riona realised who it was that she was hugging.

'_Cura_,' he mumbled, and the pain in her arm and shoulder eased as the curative magic went to work. 'You okay?'

She stepped away abruptly. She was most definitely not 'okay'. She was flustered, embarrassed and more than a little bit conflicted. 'Let's just concentrate on the mission.' she said, pulling out her handgun and cocking it. She chanced a look at his face and couldn't quite piece together the queer mixture of emotion and seriousness that she saw there. 'He boarded over here.' she pushed past him towards where two train carriages met.

A shot sounded through the air and Rinoa ducked her head instinctively. She looked back to where Ragnarok hung in the air to see Irvine aiming well away from the train. She followed his aim down to where Zell was wrestling with the driver of the car. A body fell from the vehicle. Rinoa assumed it had to be the younger guy. A moment later the car drove into a tree and Zell and the driver went flying. She hoped Zell's junctions would protect him from whatever he landed on.

In the meantime, Squall had taken her advice and advanced up the train, the polished silver of his gunblade advanced before him. He looked confident, competent, and she found herself regretting the jibe she'd made earlier at being out of practice. Putting it out of mind, she jogged to catch up.

They reached the gap between carriages at the same time. Nothing.

'He's in a carriage.' Squall reasoned. 'But which one?'

Rinoa had the answer, putting her gun away she sat on the edge and prepared to drop herself into the gap. There wasn't much space to make a landing on, and if she got it wrong she would fall under the train and Squall wouldn't be there to save her, but she was confident this time. She launched herself and held her breath.

She landed perfectly. A small burst of _aero_ was enough to keep her from jumping head-long into the door, and then she was able to grab the metal of the handrails and steady herself. She pulled out her gun and looked both ways.

The windows in the doors were grubby and dark, but she could clearly see that apart from a few empty pieces of furniture, both the carriages were empty. There was no sign of the big man. She called up to Squall to tell him what she saw.

'In that case, you go back down the train.' he called over the wind. Rinoa caught herself thinking how hansom he looked when his hair blew around his face like that. She had forgotten she realised, but snapped herself out of it. 'I'll go a few carriages forward and work my way back. He can't be far.'

She nodded and he disappeared from the gap, taking his hansom hair with him. Rinoa cursed herself for getting distracted. Things were different now, and it was of her choosing. She hadn't run from Garden on a whim, and she certainly wasn't planning to go back. Moments like that were part of a past life, and she had to push them aside if she wanted to get on with the new one she'd carved out. She'd worked too hard. Grasping her handgun more tightly she turned and cautiously entered the carriage.

It was a somewhat nervous search. The carriages were plush and unlike the two she had looked into for Squall, a few of them had passengers in. Mostly they ignored her presence, although those that did look up seemed surprised that a young woman was walking through the train by herself. She had holstered her gun early on, and was petrified that one of them might be a friend of her father's, but most were either too old or young to fall into that category. One, an elderly gentleman with a wandering eye, offered her a cup of tea and encouraged her to take the seat next to him. She left that carriage quicker than most. By the fifth car, she was starting to think that she was going in the wrong direction. None of the passengers were in possession of a stainless steel case.

It wasn't until she'd walked nearly the entire length of the train that she had any luck.

It was a dining carriage. Mahogany panelled the walls and fake flowers spouted from glass vases on every available flat surface. A crystal chandelier hung very low overhead, clinking softly. The tables were small and square, and white tablecloths had been laid on them. There was no cutlery, but Rinoa could hear the sound of china and cutlery shifting against each other with every clit-clatter of the carriage, and supposed it was all stored behind the small bar in the corner. Obviously, dinner wasn't being served tonight.

She made her way slowing through the tables, checking under each of the tablecloths as she went. It reminded her of a time when she had hidden from her mother. She had been angry about having to eat her greens and had run off, hiding and scuttling from table to table in a busy high-class restaurant until she had been caught by the maître-di. Her mother had scolded her so much after that. She doubted if her father had even noticed.

It was under the fifth table she checked. She knew before she reached it as she could see a faint green glow was emanating through the white cloth where is spilled down over the edge of the table. The colour alerted her to the seriousness of the situation.

Back at Galbatech, she'd been working with the device for almost six months now. Testing power levels and the cube's reaction to different environments. Her job had been to determine how stable it was, and her conclusion thus far had been that it was only stable in highly-regulated lab conditions. The protective case had been built on her recommendation for times when the cube had to be moved between facilities or labs, and it had cut down on 'near miss' situations by almost two thirds.

The case was missing. When Rinoa lifted up the tablecloth all she saw was the device; a glowing cube of bright green light sitting on the red carpet floor. She thought back to her training. Blue means stable, green means something is wrong, very wrong. She saw what it was almost immediately. Crudely taped to the side with sticky tape was a small sliver instrument – a thin tube about three inches long. It was emitting a faint high-pitched noise, but more importantly she could read the words pressed into the side.

'_MAGNETRON – DO NOT OPERATE NEAR ELECTRONIC MACHINERY_'

Rinoa acted quickly. She carefully picked up the table and moved it aside and then knelt. Gingerly, and without moving the cube, she peeled off the tape. When the magnetron came free she threw it the length of the carriage. She hoped that would be far enough. She still had a problem though, the cube was already green. That meant that the reactions within the cube that gave the device it's power were at a critically active lever. In the same way that a nuclear reaction tended to exponentially increase when unchecked, it was the same with the device. With nuclear reactors they used control rods to absorb extra energy and stall the reaction, and they had a similar system for the cube.

A set were built into the case, but that was missing, and she hadn't thought to bring any extra with her. A stupid mistake.

Of course, she had been cheating for months now. Whilst normal people had no way of absorbing extra energy, Rinoa was far from normal. She was a sorceress, and further to that, she had trained with GFs and SeeD. No, she was far from normal.

She looked around the carriage, checking for witnessed and then closed her eyes. She took the device between her palms. It was hot, warmer than she had ever felt it, and the thought scared her. What if she couldn't do it? What if she wasn't powerful enough?

Ruthlessly, she shoved the thoughts aside. '_You're going to do it, and you're going to do it now!_' she told herself. And so, she opened her consciousness to the magical stores within her body.

For anyone watching, they would have seen a strange scene with a girl kneeling, eyes closed, looking for all the world like she was praying to the box of swirling green light cradled in her hands. The truth wasn't far off.

Energy filled the room. A layperson would have called it static, and hair would have stood on end, but the energy was magical in nature and was much less predictable. Instead of small currents of electricity, fingers of flame danced in the air, then ice formed on a vase. A corner of the room went dark as light mysteriously vanished, and the chandelier vibrated as the crystals resonated in response to a vibration that was caused by nothing. A vase exploded, and then reformed itself as time magic manifested, the one beside it imploded under a sudden enormous gravity well. A single flower floated through the carriage, serenely ignoring the chaos around it. The room became a maelstrom of noise and light, and right at the centre of it sat the eye – a young woman of only twenty who held all this power and more.

Suddenly the magic was gone. Light came back to the corner, the vase exploded for a final time, and the chandelier stopped shaking. Rinoa gulped in a breath of air.

Opening her eyes she looked to the device. It was a swirling mass of blue, and she let herself relax. She had done it. Pulling out all that excess energy had drained her, she didn't think she could ever remember being more tired, but it was done. The day was saved.

Something cold pressed into the back of her neck, and she froze.

'Nice trick, little girl.' the voice said. It was low, and dangerous, and she knew who it belonged to.

'Rourke.' she said, trying to keep her voice level. 'You're not a very smart bomber, are you?' she turned her head a little so she could see his figure out of the corner of her eye. 'The clever ones know to run away after setting it.'

'Spirit too,' Rourke chuckled, 'I knew I'd like you. Stand up, little girl.'

Rinoa obeyed. She thought of the gun hidden in the holster under her arm, but just as she was forming a plan to make a grab for it, he spoke again.

'The gun. Get rid of it.' He pressed the barrel of his own gun into the back of her neck a little harder, just to remind her not to try anything stupid. She nodded and threw it to the other side of the carriage. 'Turn around.'

She turned, and the large man came into sharp focus. He was at least seven foot tall, and probably three feet wide at the shoulders. His bulk was entirely muscle and his dark skin glistened like it had been recently oiled. He was in perfect physical condition, and even the teeth in his self-satisfied smile were perfectly white and straight. He was imposing, and was used to using his frame to intimidate. She fought to maintain her composure; she wasn't defenceless yet.

'You don't quite realise how much in the shit you are, right now, do you?' She said, eyeing the gun, a veritable hand cannon that would more than likely remove her head from her body if it went off. Absurdly, the feeling that swept through her body wasn't fear, but a growing sense of bravery. 'You've pissed off the wrong people, buddy.'

Rourke laughed. 'I piss off a lot of people.' he said, making sure she noticed him checking out her body. 'Who is it this month? Cheerleader's anonymous?'

'You're hilarious.' Rinoa deadpanned. She flexed her fingers and electricity cracked across the gaps. It was the starting gun that began the battle.

His mistake had been standing too close. Before he could react, Rinoa ducked past the barrel of the gun. Instinctively, he fired, but the slug buried itself in the wall of the carriage, just as Rinoa's hand buried itself in his windpipe. Electricity flowed and Rourke flew across the carriage, his gun going flying in the opposite direction. Rinoa straightened her jacket and turned. She had to take care of the device before he recovered.

In the far corner Rourke groaned, surrounded by a number of broken pieces of chair, table and vase. For a moment he lay still, then he sat up. 'Not bad,' he said, his voice more gravelly than it had been a moment ago. 'I'll give you a six out of ten.

Rinoa managed to turn back, but not could cross the distance before he got to his feet. She was stupefied; on any normal man that would have been deadly. She had expected the man's bulk to protect him somewhat, but a recovery of that speed was incredible. 'So, now we both know what you're capable of.' he cracked his knuckles as Rinoa raised her arm, a new spell growing in the palm of her hand. 'Now you find out about me.'

Rinoa let the spell loose, a ball of fire that flew across the dining cart leaving a trail in its wake. She prepared another in the other hand, ready for when he would dodge, but it never happened. Rourke just watched it approach with a calm that should have been misplaced, but wasn't. Just as the spell reached him he raised his own hand.

And caught the ball of flame.

Rinoa felt her breath catch in her throat. She could smell skin burning, hear the hissing, but Rourke just smiled at her. Eventually he closed his massive hand, capturing the fire inside. When he opened it again, only a small wisp of smoke and ash came out.

'Oh dear. What are we going to do now?' he asked sarcastically, taunting her as he advanced across the carriage. Rinoa's answer was a shard of ice, as thick as a telegraph pole and sharper than a kitchen knife. Rourke grunted as it embedded itself in his shoulder, pausing for a second as it knocked him back, but then grinned again and advanced again. Rinoa watcher horror stricken as the shard seemed to dissolve into him. Within moments the only clue to its existence was the hole in his shirt.

'What_ are_ you?!' Rinoa cried, retreating a step.

Rourke shrugged nonchalantly. 'We're more alike than you think, Miss Heartily.'

Rinoa paused. 'Y-You know who I am?'

'Oh, I know all about you, my dear. Who your mother was, who your father was, your pretty little boyfriend.' he nodded towards the front of the train, evidently indicating that he was referring to Squall. 'Everything.'

Another spell flashed across the room, this time lightning. It caught Rourke in the stomach and he flinched in pain. Surviving vases and bottles around the room exploded as stray fingers of energy lashed out at them. The crystal chandelier started popping with small detonations above their heads, sending tiny fragments of glass everywhere. Rinoa held it as long as she could, hoping against hope that this sign of pain was evidence of a weakness. She could feel broken glass cutting at her skin as it flew past, a small drop of warm blood slid down her cheek, but still she kept the spell going. She gave it everything, using reserves she had never even tried to tap before, but eventually she had to let up.

Rourke was bent over double. His face and arms were covered with tiny cuts from the glass, and his body was audibly hissing. Small trails of smoke rose from the gaps in his clothing. Within moments however, he was walking towards her again. For the second time that day, Rinoa felt herself fearing for her life.

'Didn't anyone ever tell you not to play with electricity near unstable explosive devices?' Rourke growled as he came within an arm's reach of her. Rinoa tried to beat his arms away, but she was powerless against his strength. Before she knew it, he had his hand around her throat. 'This is going to be easier than I thought.' he said, his eyes shining with something akin to madness as he squeezed the life out of her.

Rinoa let out one last desperate pulse of energy. Her hands had been pushing against his chest and that's where the energy impacted. Rourke was flung across the room, his hands ripped from her throat, to impact on the far wall. He coughed and looked surprised to see blood in his saliva.

'Bitch!' he growled, getting to his feet once again. Rinoa cowered. That was all she had.

The far door burst in suddenly. It flew across the compartment, taking Rourke in the side. He battered it away easily, but it had been unexpected and he was off balance. By the time the large man had readjusted to this new and unknown threat, he was faced with the steely blue eyes of the SeeD commander as he advanced at him, gunblade shining.

Squall didn't give the man any time to react. The gunblade sliced and it was only with an unbelievable feat of gymnastics that Rourke managed to keep his head. Squall swung again, but the carriage was too confined for the large weapon and Rourke was able to deflect the weak swing with the flat of his hand. Blood splattered, but he was still standing and before Squall could swing again his foe was out of the door to the carriage.

Squall ran to the door, but it was too late. The man had jumped into a thickly wooded area beside the track and, if he had survived the jump, had disappeared. Rourke had fled.

Rinoa sank to the floor, clutching her throat. She could still feel where he had grabbed her and suspected it would bruise. She tried to heal herself, but had too little power.

'Are you okay?' Squall asked. He knelt beside her, gunblade already back in its holster at his side. Gently he prised her hand away from her throat, revealing the painful red skin beneath. Without a word he pressed his fingers to her throat and a cooling sensation spread through the area. Rinoa sighed in relief.

'Thanks.' she said, caring little for their past history at that moment in time. It was a good feeling, not feeling angry, or guilty, or...anything but gratitude at being alive, she decided. She looked to Squall, hoping that he was feeling the same, but he was kneeling on the other side of the carriage, amongst piles of broken chairs, vases and mahogany panelling.

'Is this it?' he said, pointing at the cube of glass that was still, thankfully, glowing blue.

She nodded. Her grievances with Squall came back to the forefront of her mind as she watched him pick the object up gingerly in gloved hands. How silly they seemed, some of them at least, when seen in the light of a new day.

'Squall?' she said tentatively. He didn't seem to hear her.

'Where's the case?' he said instead, looking about the remains of the carriage for a glimmer of silver that might reveal its location.

Rinoa sighed. It was probably for the best. Conversations about feelings with Squall rarely went according to plan when he was distracted. In truth, experience told her that they rarely went well even when he was focused. 'I don't know.' she admitted. 'I found it like that, except green.'

She suddenly had his full attention. Rinoa felt like laughing. 'You defused it?' he asked, urgent to find out if he was holding a live explosive device or not.

'Defuse isn't the word I'd use – it's not a bomb, there are no wires to cut or anything.' she said. Squall narrowed his eyes. 'But yes. I _defused_ it.' she confirmed. He relaxed and put the device gingerly back on the floor.

'Good.' he said. He offered her a hand. 'Help me look for that case and then we can get out of here.' he looked around at the chaos of the carriage. Tables were upturned or in pieces, there was hardly a vase left standing, and the chandelier was dangling by a single wire. 'I don't want to have to explain to the ticket collector how we managed to destroy one of his cars. Think he'd believe that we were chasing a rogue squirrel?'

A joke. Well, a Squall joke anyway. She'd take that over open hostility any day. She took his hand and let him help her stand. 'Tell you what,' she said, '_I'll_ go look for the case. You best work on your cover story some more.' she patted him on the chest. 'Try one with less rodents and more... what's the word I'm looking for? Plausibility?'

She stepped away from him and tried not to grin too much. 'SeeD special forces, my ass!' she mumbled to herself.

* * *

As the train sped away down the tracks, out to the west with one SeeD member, one sorceress and thirty odd high-placed politicians and military personnel, a lone person stared from the branches of an ancient redwood tree, thirty feet of the ground. He was dark skinned, built like a wall and his hand and abdomen throbbed with pain. Despite his injuries though, he was happy.

'Well met, Commander.' he said, watching as the last carriage sped past with a screech of wheel on track. A few sparks flew. 'Round one to you, I think, but don't count your chickens just yet. We'll meet again.' he clenched his throbbing fist. It had stopped bleeding, and that pleased him, but the pain was still plainly evident. 'Next time I won't make it so easy.'

He shifted in his perch and shifted the aim of his thoughts. 'And Miss Heartily, very impressive.' he looked up at the clouds as a flash of colour caught his eye. A lone flower was floating serenely across the sky, completely ignoring the law of gravity. The man smiled. 'Very impressive indeed. You might just be the one we've been looking for. You'll see me again too, I'll wager.'

Pondering completed he gauged the distance to the base of the tree and jumped. The entire forest seemed to shake as he landed, but then he melted into the undergrowth and became invisible.

The forest was empty once more.

* * *

'...Rourke retreated and we managed to find the device's casing for transport back to Galbatech. At present it's sitting in a high-security, climate controlled strongbox in Garden. Two of the the Timber Bears were killed in the action, and the third, Rourke, escaped. I think we can presume that he's severely wounded from the method of his escape, even a SeeD would feel jumping from a high-speed train into a forest, but Rinoa has another opinion.' Squall said, looking to her.

They were back in Garden. Finding the casing had been a lot quicker than she'd thought and they were being extracted from the roof of the carriage by Selphie within ten minutes. Squall hadn't needed an excuse for the ticket collector, and Rinoa didn't have the heart to remind him that as the train was exclusively for high-ranking officials, there likely wasn't one anyway. Once back aboard Ragnarok they set off for Garden immediately. They'd been back in the Serengetti Sea for just over an hour before Xu summoned them for a debriefing.

Rinoa nodded and accepted the baton of telling the tale from Squall. 'I think he might either be using GFs or some new type of para-magic that we've never come across before, at least, not in my time with you.' she swallowed nervously, annoyed that she'd managed to get back on 'that' topic within one sentence. 'He seemed to have the ability to absorb damage. I'll admit that I was exhausted from 'defusing' the device, if that's what we've calling it,' she shot an annoyed look at Squall, 'but apart from the initial impact, the guy was untouchable. I hit him with an ice spike similar to the one Edea launched at Squall three years ago, and all that happened was the guy _stumbled_ a bit. If I hadn't been in fear for my life, I would have found it fascinating.'

'Are you trying to say that he's impervious to damage?' Xu was frowning. 'That would definitely indicate a Junction, and a stock of pretty high-end magic, but where did he get the training? He's definitely not one of ours, and as far as I know we're the only ones with the knowledge of how to junction with that kind of efficiency.'

'Wherever he got the training, if he even has for that matter, Rourke is dangerous. I think we should put him on a watch-list.' Squall said, 'I'm even tempted to inform the Galbadian anti-terrorism unit.'

'I agree.' Xu said. 'We haven't cooperated with GATU in a while, and a bit of free information about a Timber terrorist leader should keep us in their good books. I'll draw up a simple brief for them, and I'll add Roarke to our terrorism watch-list. Might be a good idea to sent a team to see what else we can find out about him.'

Squall nodded. 'Do it. I don't like the feeling of not knowing what he's up to.' he looked around the gathered personnel. 'Unless there are any other questions, I think we're done here. Thank you very much.' he turned to Rinoa. 'If you come with me to my office, we can organise you some transport back to Galbatech. Then feel free to use your cabin or grab some dinner from the canteen. The helicopter might take a few hours to get here, so you might want to get some rest. I know you're tired.'

'Okay, thanks.' she said with a grateful smile, and then raised her voice. 'But wait a second, I have a request before you all go.' she said to the whole room. Everyone paused in their leaving, Zell was already half out the door, but they gave her their full attention.

'When you write this mission up, I'd appreciate if you left out _how_ I defused the device.' she said somewhat sheepishly. 'As you know, my situation in life is somewhat precarious, with the current wave of feeling towards...well... sorceresses.' She wasn't exaggerating either, there were at least three high-profile anti-sorceress rallies across the globe every month, and six sorceresses and suspected sorceresses had been attacked in the past six months alone. 'Hopefully you can appreciate why I haven't told Galbatech about my powers.'

'We can't just leave out that kind of detail,' Sarya replied. Her face was hard, and Rinoa wondered if the girl thought she was looking at a person or a sorceress right at that moment. 'Unless you haven't noticed, Garden's main objective is protecting the world from sorceresses, not protecting them from the world.'

Squall put a hand on the girl's shoulder. 'It was also founded by a sorceress, don't forget that.' he said softly. Sarya ducked her head, but Rinoa could see her face was still hard. Squall turned to Rinoa. 'Perhaps you should consider revealing your abilities? You're working in their magical research department, right? Who better could Galbatech find to do that sort of research than a sorceress?'

Across the table, Xu shook her head. 'You're too close, Squall. We know Rinoa's not dangerous, but they don't. Her not telling them until now, when it comes out in a mission report from us anyway, could be seen as a massive problem of trust. After all, who better to hijack magical research for their own ends than a sorceress?'

'Point taken.' Squall said with a frown. He nodded to Rinoa. 'Consider it done. We'll just say that you used your 'special skills' to defuse the device. As we don't actually know how the device works, I can't see how Galbatech will be suspicious about the lack of detail. In a way, we won't even be lying.'

'Thank you.'

Squall smiled. It was only small, but it was an improvement on his reaction to seeing her twenty four hours ago. 'Dismissed.' he said to the room at large and people started moving again. Sarya scuttled out the door quickest of all except Zell, who was out before Squall had finished the word.

Xu nodded and smiled encouragingly to Rinoa as she got up from the table. 'Good luck.' she whispered as she passed. Rinoa pretended not to understand what she meant.

Squall waited for her in the corridor. They moved slowly towards the second floor elevator in silence and Rinoa used the time to reflect. A week ago, if someone had told her that she would be walking through Garden with Squall Leonheart, she would have laughed and told them to stop drinking so much. If they had told her that they would be walking in comfortable silence, she would have called them a doctor. It was funny how things could change so quickly. Not easily, what they had been through in the past twelve hours could hardly be called your average walk in the park, but they had done it, and what's more, they had done it together without killing each other.

'I'm sorry.' she said suddenly, and whether she was apologising for leaving Garden and Squall all those years ago without a word, or if it was turning up at Garden two years later unannounced, she wasn't entirely sure.

Squall didn't initially respond, but kept walking along the long gallery of the second floor at the same steady, confident pace. 'About what?' he said eventually.

Rinoa felt like laughing. She wished she knew. 'Everything. Nothing... I don't really know.' she realised that she was wringing her hands and self-consciously stuffed them into her pockets. 'I just thought – thought that I should apologise. It _feels_ like I should, anyway. You know?'

They walked around the corner onto a walkway between the second floor gallery and the lift shaft. The central hall of the Garden stretched out below them, the circular walkway a band of brilliant white against the blue of the water. The sound of muted conversations drifted up through the air, as well as the soft roar of the fountains. Squall stopped walking and leant against the railing, surveying the space below.

'I do.' he said softly. 'We both made mistakes. It's only natural that we want to make amends.'

Hesitantly, Rinoa joined him at the railing. She looked down at the people below, looking all the world like ants in a farm. 'I did love you.' she said quietly, 'When I left, I mean. I loved you. I just... I dunno. I felt so alone in this place.' _Like an individual ant in a colony – no one special._ She glanced at his face, trying to gauge if she should continue. It was blank, staring straight ahead. She wondered what memory he was reliving. 'You won't understand, not really. All your friends and family are here. Garden is more than just your home to you; it's your life. I suspect you could go anywhere in the world, and you wouldn't be as happy as you are here.'

She sighed. 'It's not like that for me though. I have friends outside, in Deling, in Timber, in Balamb too. When I was younger I even had a pen pall from FH. The people in this building are...were...just one set of friends. Close friends that I had shared experiences with that I'll never share with anyone else ever again, as close to family as friends can get...'

'But?' Squall asked, hearing the word coming.

'But, I need _more_, Squall. Not friends, that's not what I mean, I couldn't ask for better. It's Garden, Squall. That's the problem. She flies around the globe, visiting places that most normal people don't get to see, and it was great for a while, but it doesn't last. Eventually each new place becomes a retelling of the last. The same stories, the same shocked look at seeing Garden drop out of the sky. It was like reading the first couple of chapters of a book over and over again. If I had been able to get a few more chapters in, maybe finish a couple of books, then sure, sign me up for the Garden Express, but it's never going to be like that. Garden is... what Garden is.'

'And what about me?' Squall said suddenly, 'How did I fit into this book and chapter analogy?'

Riona shook her head. 'You don't, you never did. With you... it was different. Like I said, I loved you, I really did, and that's a large part of why I managed to stick around this place for a year before going crazy. You helped me see what there was for me here, but eventually even that changed. You stopped going on missions, and Xu started seeing you more than I did, sitting behind that desk of yours upstairs. I wasn't cleared to go on missions unless you were with me, so I had to stop going too, and eventually the only thing keeping me at Garden was the memory of what we once had.'

'I thought you said you still loved me?'

Rinoa laughed in exasperation. 'Oh, Squall. A person can love someone without being _in love_ with them. You meant more to me than anyone ever had done before, and I'll always care about you, but did I want to be with you any more? Were you even the same person I fell in love with any more?'

'You couldn't say this to me at the time?' Squall asked, his voice was strained but steady.

'Maybe I could have. I don't know. You can be a scary man to talk to about... you know, emotions. Maybe I was scared.'

'You're talking to me now.'

Rinoa laughed, properly this time. 'That's because I've got nothing to lose. I've already thrown it away. I can hardly make things between us any worse than they were twenty four hours ago.'

'But back then you thought you had everything to lose.' Squall reasoned. Rinoa nodded.

Squall sighed and relaxed more fully against the railing. 'In that case, I'm sorry too.' he said. He turned and looked into her eyes. 'You know I'm not the best person when it comes to feelings and...stuff. I'm well aware that it's something that I have to work on. I just wish you had said something sooner.'

Rinoa attempted a smile. 'Preferably two years sooner?' she asked.

'Preferably.' he agreed, 'I don't know how I would have reacted, I've changed in the two years we've been apart, but I'd like to think that I would have listened to what you had to say. To see that what I was doing, who I was turning into, was damaging our relationship – A relationship that was worth saving, whatever the cost.'

This time Rinoa didn't have to try to smile. It came to her face unbidden. 'My knight.' she said with a chuckle. 'Always saving the day.' Then she turned more serious.

'Look, Squall. I know it can't ever be like it was again. There's too much history, too much heartache, on both sides. I know the blame is mostly mine, I did up and leave without a word, after all, but I'd really like it – I'd love it actually – if we can put this behind us and... I don't know... try and be friends again?'

Squall gave her a long hard look, and for a second Rinoa thought he was going to say no, that it would be too hard, that they were better off never setting eyes on each other again. But then his eyes softened and she knew she'd won him over.

'Friends.' he agreed. 'But I'm not promising anything. I'm still not entirely convinced that being around you again isn't going to bring up old memories that will be more painful than anything else, but for the sake of what we had, I'm willing to try and be friends, if that's what you want.'

He held out his hand and Rinoa grinned. 'Definitely.' she said as she shook it, and as she did so, it felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She hoped he felt the same.

'Come on, let's get you a flight out of here before you convince me to do anything else that I might regret tomorrow.'

Rinoa laughed, the tone rich and happy. He was a different Squall, a Squall who made bad jokes, and she found she liked that.

* * *

The lights were dim and the music loud. On stage a girl was dancing provocatively against a pole whilst middle aged men sat around watching as they sipped on overpriced alcohol. In one corner a group of waitresses clothed in just their underwear talked amongst themselves in hushed tones, whilst in the other a young man was being cheered by his friends as he was led away by the tie into a back room. It was a grimy place, just clean enough to pass inspection, but not encourage many return customers. Not that the customers were there for good clean fun anyway.

At the bar sat two tall figures in baggy clothing. At a glance they looked like two college men chilling out, all college jerseys and hoodies pulled up over their head. In truth, if anyone had bothered to look closer, they might just have seen something different.

'Heard you had a bad day.' one said, taking a sip from his drink. In the ultraviolet light it glowed a bright green, and he tried not to care about what had been added to make it do that. 'Something about a dragon above the city? How did you come up with that one?'

The other laughed, short but sharp. 'What can I say, I have a good imagination and a platinum card.' she fidgeted with the small red straw in her drink. 'The truth will come out eventually, but that should tide the media over for a while. Nothing like a good dragon-over-the-city story to get peoples' blood flowing.'

The man grunted his agreement. 'Fancy bribing me with that platinum card to not spill the beans?' he said, only half joking. 'I could do with a new suit.'

'What you could do with is a new personality, and my credit cards, platinum or otherwise, will never be able to get you that.' She spied a lone peanut on the bar and flicked it off with her finger. 'And if you even think about spilling anything, I'll cut your balls off and feed them to you.'

'Easy, girl. If I'd known you'd be horny, I would've suggested you wear something easier to get into.'

'Fuck you.'

The man laughed. 'That's what I was implying.'

The bar tender, another girl in bra and panties, these ones red, moved to their end of the bar to make a cocktail and they stopped talking. The man's eyes followed the girl's breasts the entire time. When the conversation resumed, it was all business, the previous topic forgotten.

'Word has it that you saw an old friend today.' the man said, taking another sip. 'Care to comment?'

His companion eyed him suspiciously. 'You have very good contacts.' she said. 'We did indeed receive a visit from an old friend. Old friend of yours too, as it happens.'

The man nodded. 'That_ is_ what I've heard. I've also been hearing things about this little science project of hers, and if I've heard about it, then so have others.'

'You're implying that we don't know what we're getting ourselves into.' she said, and it wasn't a question. 'What about our mutual friend? Does she know what she's tangled up in?'

'Now, that is the question, isn't it.' He studied his fingernails and found one too long. He started chewing the end. 'My instinct says no. At the end of the day, she's too goody-two-shoes to be involved in some of the things I've been hearing, but she most definitely is in the cross-hairs. Even if she's in cahoots with one of the interested parties, she can't be playing them all.'

'Your advice?' she asked. He looked at her, surprised. They usually didn't do much more than exchange useful information. 'I'd owe you one.' she urged.

'I'd let it play, myself.' he conceded eventually. 'Keep a close watch on the black market, look for any strange deals on the stock market,' he smiled, 'talk to the right people. And if she gets herself into trouble, she'll come running. She might be proud, but she's already proved she's not too proud to go to you for help.'

His companion nodded. 'It's not often I agree with you, but in this case I'll make an exception.'

'Isn't that one of the signs of the apocalypse?' he asked with a grin.

'In that case, we better get going. Thank you for the advice.'

The pair slid off their stools and walked to the entrance, where another gaggle of scantily-clad women were loitering. Two broke off from the group and approached them.

'Leaving so soon?' said the ivory-skinned beauty. Her heavy green eye-shadow matched her underwear, and she carried herself in a way that was designed to show off her two main attractions. She took hold of the man's hand and helped him cup her bottom. 'The night is still so young.'

He gave it a little squeeze.

The second girl, smaller in stature but obviously going for the schoolgirl appearance with pigtails and a small tartan skirt which poorly hid bright white panties beneath, approached his companion. She had her hands buried deep inside her jersey so the girl took the crook of her arm instead. The poor girl obviously hadn't noticed her potential client's gender yet.

'Don't be nervous.' she said, sliding her other hand up her potential client's leg. 'I'm very gentle.'

'Trust me, I'm not your type.'

The schoolgirl's eyes widened when the female voice emanated from the dark of the hoodie. She removed her hand like it had been shocked by electricity and backed away slowly.

'You're a creep!' she addressed to the man, 'Coming in here with your girlfriend! That's sick! I bet the two of you get off watching other people do each other!'

The man shook his head. 'No-no-no! Well, yes... I'd quite like to see... but that's not...'

The cream skinned beauty abruptly let go and joined her friend. 'Sickos! Hey Peto, call security!'

The pair in hoodies didn't wait around for security to catch them. They were out of the building and around the corner before the steroid packed men even turned their heads in the direction of the noise.

'You always have to ruin my fun.' the man said, genuinely disappointed. 'Couldn't you have played along for just a little while?'

His companion shot him a withering look. 'Grow up. We meet to discuss mutual professional interests – a link that both our employers benefit from. This isn't a Saturday night on the town, and we most definitely don't go around picking up strippers! If you can't be professional about this, then you can forget about meeting with me again!'

The man scoffed. 'Okay, okay! I'll be professional.' he grinned, 'but I wasn't lying when I said I'd like to see you with...'

'Goodnight, Seifer!' She said, walking away quickly. He grinned.

'But seeing as you kinda ruined my evening, and you _owe_ me one, I was thinking maybe you...'

'_Goodnight_,_ Seifer_!'

He sighed. He knew she'd give in eventually. They all did. Even the tough ones.

'I'll see you around. Stay safe, Quistis.'


End file.
